NIGHTBLAZE: The Purification Initiative
by CrimsonMercenary
Summary: Meet Nightblaze, the newest super hero to the DC universe! In this story he struggles to stop a evil scheme involving the world's water as he struggles to overcome the problems that occur in one's personal life when being a Super Hero. Please read and enjoy, and drop a review if you don't mind! THE STORY IS NOW COMPLETE!
1. The Dinner Party

**A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR:  
**

_Hello readers! This is a new story I'm working on about a OC super hero. I love heroes and figured it was time to be a bit original and make my own. Now, I know that's risky business in the fanfiction universe so please be assured that in my stories about Nightblaze I fully intend on introducing other DC characters. Speaking of DC comics, I don't own them! In this story you will meet plenty of original characters, but all the classics aren't mine! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story and please let me know what you think!_

_Chapter 1 is big on character development, so enjoy!  
_

**NIGHTBLAZE: The Purification Initiative**

**Chapter 1:**

**THE DINNER PARTY**

It was a peaceful evening in the suburbs of Wellington, a small town that was just south of Crimson City. The majority of the who's whos of this prosperous city along with many other wealthy and powerful businessmen of all the largest companies in the US were spending their Friday night at a dinner party in the largest mansion in Wellington, owned by multi-billionaire Derek Widener. Twenty-Eight year old Mr. Widener was hosting a major party at his residence which fulfilled many purposes. Many notable Crimson City police officers, fire fighters, and hospital workers were receiving honors for their jobs being done exceedingly well. Also, at this party the press was holding a conference to interview the youngest man to earn the rank as Peoples magazine number 1 most influential person, Derek Widener. Finally, during his interview and time with Crimson City's most notorious reporters, Derek planned on releasing information on his company's greatest project yet, The Purification Initiative. The large ball room of the Widener mansion was overflowing with people wearing their best clothing and having a wonderful time.

Among the crowd, Zach Davis entered the scene relatively late and found his way to the bar to order a drink. He observed all of the gentlemen and ladies, dance, talk about the latest gossip, and do their best to make it look like they enjoyed all the great splendor and luxury of life. It wasn't often that Zach found himself at such high end parties, as one of Crimson City's finest fire fighters. As he looked around the room full of pomp and privilege Zach considered himself lucky to not have to endure such scenes often. Zach's thoughts were interrupted as his eyes fell upon the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.

Her body was slender and perfect in all the right angles. She had long dark brown hair that was being worn up in a very fancy way that obviously took hours to prepare. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean and due to her half Asian and half Caucasian ethnicity, her skin was a rich mocha tint. (The kind of shade that many people spend hours killing skin cells at tanning beds trying to obtain.) She wore a sparkling red dress that was long enough to not appear distasteful, but short enough to allow men's minds to begin to wonder. She wore an expensive necklace of real pearls and on her hands wore no rings. Zach could not help but smile as he stared at this woman who was walking towards him almost like a dignified goddess. Her name was Amanda Cho-ming and Zach knew her well. For the past ten years, and up until a few months ago, this beautiful woman was Zach's girlfriend. The two had grown up in Wellington together, and had been friends since high school where Zach first fell in love with Amanda.

As his ex-girlfriend approach Zach quickly looked into his wine glass to make sure he looked as good as he could. He ran his hand through his yellowish blonde hair that was spiked up with styling gel to make sure it was perfect. He did his best to make his shiny blue eyes sparkle, because he knew that was always Amanda's favorite of his feature. He fixed his bowtie to make it fit with the rest of his rented tuxedo. Finally when she got to a distance where he had to acknowledge Amanda's presence, Zach stopped primping and spoke to her.

"Great party, eh?" the thin, medium sized man spoke with a small degree of nervousness in his voice. Zach and Amanda did not end their relationship on the best terms and because of their long and complex history, it was very difficult to remain friends.

"Here is a face that I would have never expected to be here." Amanda replied with a warm smile. Her voice was soft as if she was a seraph but portrayed the woman's confidence.

Zach shrugged as he raised his glass of wine. "The places our jobs take us, right?"

Amanda raised her eyebrow, looked around to make sure nobody was listening to their conversation, and then moved in closer to Zach. "Of course this raises the question, which job are we talking about?"

"I'm being honored as one of the three firemen that were on duty during the Greil Tower Fire." Zach replied.

"Oh yes!" Amanda replied as she recalled the story, "I sit next to the girl that wrote the article at the Crimson Crusade. A sixty-two story building, burned completely to the ground due to a gas leak, and thanks to the fire fighters there were no casualties. They were very lucky to have you there for that one, Zach."

"You know how it is." Zach smiled, "I don't really ever have to worry about burning when I go to the beach. I have a strong tolerance for that kind of stuff."

"Well, regardless of your natural gifts and abilities." Amanda said as she raised her glass and gently hit it on Zach's, "Congratulations on another successful accolade on the Hero front. I'm proud of you, Mr. Davis! And how is Eric doing these days? I'm sure you two are still always in constant contact with each other. I hope he has found a life outside aiding you in your…other job opportunities."

"Oh you know Eric, always geeky as usual. I think he's out tonight at some Halo convention. Him and his games, I don't see much of him lately." Zach lied as he tried to veer the conversation to another direction. When it came to Zach's other "job opportunities" he knew that they directly influenced Amanda's decision to break up with him and keep the conversation as far away as possible from _that_ topic. Zach's eyes temporarily left Amanda as he noticed Derek Widener walking around from group to group charming each person with business banter. Zach pointed at the billionaire and spoke. "And there he is, the man of the hour. Derek Widener, I swear he looks the exact same as in high school. I would have never guessed that he would become as successful as he is now. He always rode on daddy's coat-tails and it hasn't been till recently that he's appeared on just about every front page of every media source that's in print or on the web."

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy from one of Crimson City's finest?" Amanda responded sarcastically, "That's right, now that I remember it you and Derek used to hate each other growing up. I'll admit he was a bit of a pompous bully in high school. You better watch it, hero-boy, or he and his friends may come and steal your lunch money again! Now if you excuse me, I have to go do MY job."

"So that's why you're here." Zach rolled his eyes as he was a little irritated that Amanda remembered how Derek used to torment Zach in high school. "To get the big story for the Crimson Crusade. Amanda Cho-Ming, Crimson City's rising voice of the people. I've been reading all your stuff since you moved into the city. So you're here to get the big scoop on this guy eh? That explains why you got all dolled up and took a page out of "How to look like a seductive Greek Goddess."

"The places our job takes us, right?" Amanda said with a playful sigh as she took a deep breath, put on a very attractive smile, and began moving towards the billionaire.

Zach mirrored Amanda's sigh as his eyes lingered on her body as she walked away. The past few months of his life had been the hardest he had ever lived. Since Zach had met Amanda he held true to the belief that behind every good man was an even better woman. For him, Amanda was that woman. With her out of his life, despite the façade he put on as he lived life, Zach had never felt more empty.

Zach stared at his ex-girlfriend talking to the billionaire media-proclaimed boy-genius. As he stared at Derek's short black hair, his jet black eyes, and pale white skin, a fiery distasteful feeling radiated through him. Derek wore all black, and his silk shirt was obviously more expensive than everything Zach wore that night combined. Looking at the man of the night, Zach remembered every reason why he used to hate Derek Widener. Watching the two talk, seeing Amanda give a gentle chuckle as Derek gently put his hand on her arm, and witnessing the good time that was being had a few feet from him was too much for Zach to bear. In one drink Zach finished his wine, placed his glass on the bar and walked over to join the two.

Derek looked at Zach, tilted his head as he acted like he was remembering who this person was, and finally spoke slowly. "I know you don't I? Wait, didn't we go to high school together?"

"Derek, you remember Zach Davis, don't you?" Amanda said, as she turned and gave Zach one of those fake smiles that suggested _You need to get away from here because I don't want you around. _"I believe you guys played soccer together right? We were all in the same graduating class."

"Of course!" Derek play acted as if finally placed Zach in his mind. "Were you on the soccer team? You must have been second or third string, I don't remember seeing you on the field to much. Of course, it's hard to recall really because when I think back I can really just recall all the times when I scored the winning goal."

Amanda laughed as she playfully slapped Derek on the chest. Zach felt a little part of him die inside as he witnessed this. "You were always our star scorer at Wellington High! If I remember correctly you were a little heart breaker too? It was always so ridiculous how many girls talked about Derek Widener the hot captain of our soccer team in the bathroom."

Derek chuckled as he smiled and looked down at his drink for a moment. As his laughter subsided the young billionaire spoke. "Yeah, I suppose I was a bit of a playboy back in the day. But as I get older, I must confess I'm looking for something a bit more serious. You know, something more real. I know I don't have to tell you two about the benefits of that kind of relationship. It was always in the stars that Zach Davis and Amanda Cho-Ming were destined together. So, are you guys married, or when is that happening?"

There was a moment of awkward silence, but Amanda being the one better with words broke the tension. "Well, we actually broke up a while ago. Zach and I had a good run, but ultimately we're going in two different directions. You know what they say, you can't live in high school forever. Of course, I don't have to tell you that Derek. In high school you were the snobby kid whose daddy bought him everything, look at you now…People's number one most important person, what an honor! What can you tell me about this new project that Widener Corporation is embarking on? You guys have kept it so secretive, and the mystery is just killing me!"

"Ah, there's the investigative reporter coming out of you, Amanda." Derek said with a charming smile. "Well, I don't want to spoil my evening presentation for you right now. How about we table that conversation for perhaps dinner tomorrow evening? I can take you out this place in Crimson City that is absolutely divine, it's by far the fanciest restaurant on the West coast."

Zach felt like he was about to throw up. Amanda smiled and replied warmly, "That would be absolutely lovely. It's always nice to catch up with an old friend!"

Derek noticed Zach's obvious discomfort and gave him a charming, but very fake smile. "But let's forget what this night is _really _about. Honoring our heroes from the Greil Tower Incident! Speaking of which, I need to go back and make sure everything is squared away for our ceremony. But before I go, I can't miss the opportunity to shake the hand of one of Crimson City's finest!"

Derek stuck out his cold and white hand and Zach returned the gesture and shook his old nemesis's hand. Derek gave a nervous chuckle as Zach clenched the hand very tightly. "You certainly have warm, and almost _hot_ hands!"

As Derek left Amanda turned her attention to Zach and gave him a glare that could freeze the sun. "Did you really have to come and catch up with your best bud Derek, here while I was trying to do my thing? Can you believe he thought we were _engaged! _ Well, if you excuse me, I have to go meet some of the other significant people of the evening. Don't think I don't see what you're doing Zach!"

"Do you think that maybe we could…" Zach began to spoke, but Amanda cut his statement short.

"No, I don't. Let's call it how it is, Zach. I'm focused on my career. I have finally found something I love and that I'm good at. And you…well; we both know that you're one of the most career focused individuals in the world. As well you should, nobody can do what you do as well as you can! So let's be adults, and both do what we're here to do tonight without there being any drama or awkwardness."

Before Zach could even present a thought, Amanda walked off to go meet other important people at the dinner party. Zach turned to return to the bar but his trip was interrupted by his a familiar voice that came from his tiny Bluetooth earpiece that was so small that even the best eyes could easily miss it.

"Hey Zach, I hope this isn't a bad time but we got activity going on the East side of Crimson City. It's another one of the Adulium robberies, I figured you would want to know. Nothing's happened yet, but I picked up some interesting statements on cell phones we bugged that strongly suggest a deal is about to go south, people are in danger, and goods are about to be stolen."

"Eric you could not have chimed in my ear at a better time. " Zach whispered as he began walking towards the door. "I am heading out right now, and will make my way to Crimson East. You mind helping me with transportation?"

"Zach I told you before you left that you needed cab fare money for the way home too…" Eric sounded annoyed.

"Not that transportation." Zach replied, "Send me the XLR8."

"We haven't tested most the devices on the bike yet." Eric responded, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Probably the best I've had all day." Zach spoke softly as he made his way out the door of the Widener mansion. "My watch is rigged so you can see where I'm at, send her my way ASAP. I need some serious speed, and I can't think of a better night to test the prototype out."

"Roger that."

Zach took off his jacket and threw it in the backpack he had strategically placed in the bushes. Zach then quickly unbuttoned his shirt and threw it in the backpack. He wore a black synthetic metal T-shirt under his real clothing that had an emblem of a fireball on it. Zach turned to his right wrist and entered in a security code into his very high tech watch. A female computer's voice spoke from the watch. "NIGHTBLAZE OPERATION INITIATED. ACCESS APPROVED!"

Zach's shirt suddenly hardened into black metal armor with red streaks, and the sleeves extended to cover his arms and create black gloves with red highlights. At the same time, the armor extended downwards to cover his legs and feet in black plates that though were strong, were very light not impeding any kind of movement. Finally, Zach closed his eyes as he felt a synthetic black metal eye mask appearing over his face. As he now wore his fireproof clothlike metal suit, Zach took a deep breath and surrounded his body with flames, as he transformed into his true form. As the man opened his eyes, and the flames radiated through his body towards his head, Zach's hair went from a yellow gold to a bright fiery red.

Not long after transforming, a computer controlled aircraft flew over the hero and dropped black metal box that landed on one top of a bush. The plane quickly flew away into the night. Zach approached the box and pressed a button on the watch, causing the black metal to disappear leaving a sleek black and blue motorcycle whose speed was unparalleled by any other vehicle.

"Package delivered." Eric's voice was heard in Zach's ear. "Go get them Nightblaze."


	2. The Purification Initative

**Sorry for the prolonged time in between Chapter 1 and 2! I get busy which makes having time to sit down and write challenging. Anyway, I'll try to be more regular then I have been. I hope you enjoy this chapter and feel free to drop me a review with your thoughts!  
**

**Chapter 2:**

**The Purification Initiative**

Nightblaze raced through the night on Crimson highway at well over 200 MPH thanks to the XLR8. The super hero's partner, Eric Summers had invented a new type of fuel system for the motorcycle that allows it to get faster with the intake of heat. Since Nightblaze's body was quite literally a giant furnace that knew no boundaries when it came to heat level, he could easily send the motorcycle flying as fast as he wanted. Eric warned the hero to be careful with this luxury as the bike was still a prototype and most certainly had it's currently unknown limits. The masked hero thought back to his friend's words a couple nights ago. _"Be careful how fast you go, Zach…too much power could overheat the XLR8 and give it a meltdown leaving you stranded somewhere sucking your thumb like a baby!"_

Nightblaze's thoughts then went back to not too long ago at the dinner party. As he sped down the highway, dodging cars and passing them by, he kept thinking of his conversations with Amanda, and his encounter with Derek. Of course, it was possible that Amanda was just working her flirtatious angle to get a good story, but Zach felt like he saw a bit more charmed in his ex-girlfriend then he cared for.

"Sure I'd love to go to dinner with you!" Nightblaze mocked Amanda's voice and then muttered to himself. "That stupid big shot billionaire! Honestly he is just as arrogant now as he was in high school! The only difference is that now people actually like being around him and his nonsense because he's got the money to pay them for it. I don't trust him Amanda, and I hope you know what you're doing…"

Nightblaze's mind further drifted onto Amanda's comments about him being fully dedicated to his job. _"I know you left me because you got tired of the duel life of Zach Davis and Nightblaze….you said you were tired of sharing me with the rest of the world and that our relationship was going nowhere. I was unfair to you Amanda, and I know it must have been hard. Sure, you may even be an easy target for the rebound bug…but really? Derek Widener, could you have picked a lesser of a person? Jeez, why not just call up Lex Corp at Metropolis and try to pick up Lex Luthor himself? And that pompous handshake he gave me…I almost burnt Richie Rich's hand off at that dinner party."_

Suddenly Nightblaze's thoughts were interrupted by his partner's voice in his ear communicator. "We're approaching the coordinates of the robbery, Nightblaze. And oh look, you're in luck! The bad guys have made their move so you don't have to worry about waiting around tonight, feel free to just jump in there!"

A couple blocks down from where Nightblaze was riding, at a very tall research facility, a small bomb exploded which created a whole for three crooks to escape. As they ran out, one man ran to the driver's side of their dark blue fifteen passenger van and turned the ignition on. As he was moving to the front, the two other robbers hauled a large metal device into the back of the vehicle. Once they all but threw this high tech contraption into the van, the driver stuck his head out the window and yelled. "Go go go! Come on let's out of here!"

The two thugs leaped into the van as the driver peeled down the street going as fast as he could in the run down van. The blue van's breaks screeched loudly as the driver had to slam on them, and turn sharply to the right. Out of nowhere, it seemed, a black and blue motorcycle sped into the way of the vehicle.

As Nightblaze jumped off XLR8, with one finger he shot four tiny fireballs towards each tire on the van. Though tiny, the fireballs that seared into each black leather wheel were hot enough to pop the tire entirely. The three crooks jumped out of the van and stared at Nightblaze with much confusion and uncertainty.

"What are you, a cop?" the driver asked, as he looked up and down at the man wearing a mask and tight metal armor."

"What kind of cops have you been around?" Nightblaze spoke sarcastically at the evildoer. "If they taught you that it's okay to steel big metal things that don't belong to you, then I'm not so sure about them…especially if they dress like me!"

"You got a smart mouth for a skinny boy with a nice bike." One of the other crooks snarled at Nightblaze, as he pulled a pistol out of his jacket. "What do you say we ice this freak and take his motorcycle? A beauty like that could sell for a ton!"

"You insulted me and threatened me all in the same sentence!" Nightblaze said as he concentrated on heating up his body to well over 600 degrees. (though to the normal eye, Nightblaze looked the exact same.) "And we just met! Gee, if this is how you treat total strangers, I hate to see how you talk to people you know real well…I wouldn't pull that trigger if I were you, just saying!"

The crook laughed at what he thought was Nightblaze's feeble attempt of talking his way out of this dangerous situation. After a short chuckle, the thug pulled the trigger three times as the gun was pointed at the hero's chest. Nightblaze took a step back from the impact as the bullets went inside of his chest. He stood there and took the initial pain, as his heated body instantly melted the bullets into nothingness. The burglar dropped his gun in awe, never having seen anything such as this before.

"Oooh, I wonder what you're thinking right now?" Nightblaze said with a somewhat menacing smile as he stepped forward towards the thieves. "What's the matter? Haven't you ever seen someone heat their own body up to such intense temperatures that anything entering within a centimeter's radius melts to absolute nothingness? Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Some people's kids…they just never listen!"

"Run!"

The three thugs turned tail and began to flee. Nightblaze extended his left palm and shot a low powered heat wave towards the feet of the crook who tried to shoot him. As a result of the heat, the man's rubber shoes and a small portion of the road melted together, trapping him on the ground. The thief twisted and turned, screaming as he struggle to get released from his entrapment.

"What's the big idea, freak!" the thug sounded panicked as Nightblaze approached him. "You're letting the others get away. Trust me; you don't want to mess with the guys we work for. You let them get away; you just signed your death sentence."

"I let those guys off easy on purpose." Nightblaze clenched the man's T-shirt tightly and pulled him close as he spoke. "I _want_ them to let your boss know that there is a new sheriff in town, and he's not a fan of these frequent robberies. Now, me and you are going to have a little chat. Why don't you tell me a little about this boss of yours that I shouldn't mess with. Who are you working for? What are you all trying to do? This is me asking nicely!"

"I'm…" The man tried to resist the hero's grip but Nightblaze, despite his average size, was in good shape and very strong. "I'm not telling you anything!"

Nightblaze found himself frustrated with the lackey. The black armored hero looked down, shot a small ray of fire to release the man's feet from the road, and then punched him hard in the face. The impact of the punch pushed the man backwards. "This is the last time I'm asking…nicely!"

The man shook his head, recovering from Nightblaze's quick right jab and looked deeply into eyes of his adversary. The crook looked around frantically trying to discern a way out of this mess. It was clear that the other two guys ditched him like yesterday's trash, and he had no other alternative. Knowing this thug's company policy on snitches, the man reached into his pocket, pulled out a little green pill, and quickly ingested it. Immediately the crook's mouth began to foam up and he fell to the ground dead.

Nightblaze quickly got down on his knees and examined the masked lackey. He had no pulse, and his heart was no longer beating. Nightblaze cursed under his breath as he reached over and pulled up the man's left sleeve. On the inside of the man's wrist, he noticed a tattoo of a slanted red X. Nightblaze had seen this X a couple times before, when he stopped the lackeys that stole other products made of the metal, Adulium. "Yeah, I figured as much." Nightblaze muttered as he got up and returned to his motorcycle. This was the third robbery in the past two months that he had tracked down that involved the rare and unusual metal, Adulium and he still had no idea who was the mastermind behind the operation. After hopping onto his motorcycle, Nightblaze sped off into the evening road to return to his secret hideout

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Widener mansion, Derek and his party attendees finally got tired of waiting for Zach Davis to return to the party for the ceremony to begin. Nobody saw the fire fighter leave, and Derek was running way behind schedule on delivering his presentation on the Purification Initiative. After spending enough time waiting and acting worried for Zach, Derek was able to accurately portray the false sentiment of worrying about the man's whereabouts. After a while, he made the decision to continue on with the evening's festivities. Deep down, the selfish man knew that everyone _really_ came to this party to hear about his project, so he wasn't really doing anything to distasteful. The idea to continue the party with the dinner party was mentioned to Derek from the beautiful reporter, Amanda Cho-Ming.

"Derek, you should probably go on with the award ceremony without Zach." Amanda said as she avoided eye contact with the billionaire. "You see, Zach has had some…um…family emergencies…that has made his schedule rather, unpredictable." The Crimson Crusade's star reporter had ten years of experience in covering up for the mysterious disappearing act of Zach Davis, that now Amanda would come up with excuses for the hero without giving it a second thought.

Derek gave a short speech about the irreplaceable and honorable characters within Crimson City's law enforcement community that roused cheers and celebration among the wealthy audience, as the mayor of Crimson City awarded each person their medal. After a few pictures of the "Greil Tower Heroes" as the Crusade's newspaper would call these individuals, Derek stepped up to the podium to begin his presentation.

As the billionaire began his speech, he pressed a button on the remote in his left hand and a giant green light projection of the spherical earth appeared above the center of the ball room, for everyone to see. The sphere image twirled around in the ceiling as Widener spoke.

"Consider our majestic planet and home. 70% of the Earth is water. 98% of our water is undrinkable leaving only 2% for the earth to distribute among the roughly 7.8 billion people who inhabit our planet. To be fair, actually about 1.6% of the fresh water we could drink is locked away in polar icecaps, leaving only .4% of the world's water fresh and able to sustain human life. And we wonder why so many countries crave clean water. (There were small pockets of chuckling throughout the room.) For years humanity has known this reality and has done what it can to conserve that .4%. Tonight, Widener Corporation has begun its revolution known as the Purification Initiative.

Many of you look at me and my company and are reminded of my father, Cornelius Widener, who ranks very high on the list of the most wealthy and successful businessmen in history. Of course, while my father may have had a very successful early career we all remember him as the eccentric man who spearheaded the Zichromate Project which of course led to the tragic events that took place in the sinister and draconian labs located in Rome, Italy. The development of the mysterious and highly toxic element, Zichromate drove my father into an obsessive quest that ruined his career. Nowadays at Widener Corp, we have put that page of history behind us, but took a small portion of what my father was working on and have developed a very powerful compound that has the power to purify even the saltiest ocean. No longer will the world be sustained on .4% of our own resources. Thanks to the brilliant minds of Widener Corporation, we will now be able to access our entire supply. I trust I don't have to tell all you fine people what this means for mankind. With more water, this leads to better farming, more food, cleaner regions, and access to much more of the world's resources and untapped human resources. Widener Corporation has taken the first steps in abolishing poverty on Earth."

With this concluding statement the room erupted in applause for Derek and his company. It was clear that the big pockets of Crimson City and all over the US were very impressed with the young billionaire and his charisma. Now in the back of the room taking notes for her interview later with the philanthropist, Amanda scribbled one statement that was at the front of her thoughts as Derek spoke of his Water Purification Initiative. On her notepad read "At What Cost?"


	3. The Scheme is Revealed

**And here comes Chapter 3! I hope you all are enjoying the story thus far...please drop me a REVIEW letting me know what you think! In chapter 3, the plot of the novel really thickens as we see what the bad guys are up to...enjoy!  
**

**Chapter 3:**

**THE SCHEME IS REVEALED**

Nightblaze rode his flame powered motorcycle into an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Crimson City. Once in the large dark building that had been lifeless for years, the hero drove XLR8 into the rusty old elevator. Once inside the small wired door that opened as Nightblaze approached and closed as he entered, Nightblaze pressed a button on his motorcycle. Suddenly the seemingly inactive elevator began to move downwards at a very quick speed. The elevator took Nightblaze into an underground cavern that he and Eric had made their base of operations once they had moved to Crimson City, a few months ago.

The secret cavern below the inactive warehouse was very spacious. Once Zach ensured the heroic duo a place to work, Eric quickly installed many high tech devices and a super computer that would help the two monitor their city and keep watch on any potential suspects. The two spent the majority of their nights in this cavern. While most the secret hideout was geared up with things to help Nightblaze fight crime, there was one room that the boys considered their "hang out room." In it there was a very large HD TV, a pool table, very comfortable couches, and a fridge that was always stocked with plenty of food and beverages.

Upon parking the XLR8, Zach jumped off his motorcycle and began walking towards Eric Summers, who was busy at his computer typing and running internet searches. As Zach approached his best friend since grade school, he pushed a button in on his watch which removed his eye mask from his costume.

"So…" Eric said casually as his pale blue eyes never left his computer screen and his fingers never stopped typing. "Did you do anything exciting tonight?"

"Different night, same story." Zach responded as he fell into the swivel chair next to Eric at the super computer. "A similar crime: Break-Ins that involve the theft of Adulium metal products…similar lackies: Brainless brutes with tattoos of red X's on their left arm, that don't put up much of a fight…similar ending: We still don't know the brains behind this operation or what they're wanting to do with the Adulium."

"Yes but we can at least say that they won't get ALL the Adulium that they need tonight, thanks to you!" Eric tried to add cheer to the dismal conversation. "There has to be some kind of connection here that we're missing."

"Let's look at all the angles again." Zach stared at Eric's mega computer screen as diagrams, numbers, and pictures surrounding the crimes they have been studying over the past few months appeared.

"Okay, for the past few months there has been a ton of robberies of Crimson City's finest research facilities, military compounds, science departments, and even the local universities. The thieves have taken numerous different types of devices, but the similarity is every product is made out of a rare Adulium metal. Why Adulium? Well, this metal is special because of its durability. Even the most toxic and acidic substance couldn't get through a container made of Adulium. It's very rare and often fused with other metals to increase durability. This leads me to believe that our crooks have in mind the mass transportation of something very that may be toxic or explosive, and potentially very dangerous. But where are they going, what are they planning, and where are they now…these are still questions we have unanswered. The most prevalent concern for us is who is the mastermind behind this operation? Each crook you've busted has a red X tattoo on their left arm but according to every internet database, this tells us absolutely nothing. There are plenty of crimelords here in Crimson City, but none of them seem to be interested in Adulium…which leads to the obvious conclusion that this is a new tenant in the underground crime neighborhood of Crimson City."

Eric's brilliant and analytical brain never ceased to amaze Zach. His best friend probably looked like one of the most average people in Crimson City. Eric Summers was skinny, about average height, and his face was full of freckles. He always had short messy red hair because in between online games, research, his IT consultant job, and of course his other job as Nightblaze's "technological advisor" as he called himself, the twenty-eight year old man rarely had time to do things such as bathe or run a comb through his hair. He always wore jeans, a white T-shirt, with some pale colored button down shirt (which was always left unbuttoned.) While on the surface Eric looked like a "nobody", Zach knew the true brilliance behind this man's average exterior. He quite literally could build anything with almost nothing. He also was a whiz with computers. Eric also had a photographic memory, anything he saw once he could remember.

"I developed the abilities I have thanks to a failed experiment that exposed my mother to the deadly Zichromate element." Zach spoke as he proudly smiled to his friend, "But you…you have your abilities naturally just because you're brilliant…you seriously blow me away Eric!"

"Well, it doesn't seem like your extraordinary mastery over fire, or my brilliant mind has been getting us anywhere with these frequent Adulium thefts…" Eric reflectively spoke as he gazed at all the information on their computer screen, searching for an answer.

"What about Derek Widener…" Zach muttered as his eyes left the screen and his mind returned to earlier this evening when he met that pompous jerk. "Maybe he's our villain mastermind?"

"Really Zach?" Eric asked, sarcastic and slightly annoyed at his friend. He knew exactly where this conversation was heading.

"What! Don't look at me like that! It makes sense…sort of. I mean, Derek's name just has gotten big in the past few months, about the same time we've started tracking these robberies. His dad was into some shady deals, need I remind you one of them killed my mother and gave me fire powers. This dude's always been a tool…it makes sense that when he took over daddy's business he also took over his underground business with the crimelords as possible. I'm just spitballing here…you know I have an instinct for these kind of things, Eric."

"Yeah…" Eric rolled his eyes as he went back to typing, "You know , that little communication device in your ear goes both ways, right? I heard everything that happened in that party earlier tonight. Jeez, stalker much Zach? I know things have been real rough for you since Amanda left. She has been a huge part of your life for years, and now she left…and we both know why, you made the decision to put your real job as a super hero above your relationship with her. I'm not saying that was the wrong decision, in fact I think it was the right thing to do, otherwise I wouldn't be hanging around you still…you know that. But with that said, you have to give the girl some room and stop looking at every dude she's talking with as Crimson City's next super villain. And I don't mean to overstep my boundaries as best friend or anything, but you're issues with your break up have really impacted your job as Nightblaze. You've gotten a lot rougher with these crooks, often singling one out like tonight, beating him to tar, and letting the others get away. Come on, Zach, don't forget why you're out there on the streets!"

"What are you trying to say?" Zach spoke loudly and aggressively, as he rose from his chair and begun walking away. "That I should let these thieves off with a warning, give them back the things they steal and ask them not to do it again? Man, it must be nice to sit back here behind your computer and critique my job, Eric. When you're in the moment out there on the streets and you're staring face to face with those lowlifes as their trying to kill you, it's hard to turn the other cheek."

"I understand that, I really do." Eric spoke sympathetically. "I'm just saying I'm concerned about you man. You just dealt with a huge break up, I know how much you love Amanda…But in your line of work you have to be stronger then that kind of stuff."

"Whatever, "Zach shrugged as he continued to walk away. "I am going to go watch some TV, I have to go into work at the fire department here in the next few hours anyway."

"Not yet you don't." Eric spoke as there were beeps on his super computer and a GPS map appeared highlighting a crime happening not to far from the warehouse. "We have another robbery happening a few blocks down from here at a university science lab. More Adulium is being taken, don't hang up your boots yet Nightblaze, your job's not done yet!"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Meanwhile, at Crimson City's most finest dining establishment Derek Widener courted his beautiful date, Amanda Cho-Ming to a delicious seafood meal. Amanda had used her charm to earn her a personal and private interview with the most wealthiest man in Crimson City, and she was getting a free meal out of it too. Derek knew that Amanda was here only for the story, but he still enjoyed the looks everyone gave him for entertaining the most beautiful girl in the restaurant. He also enjoyed the additional luxury of knowing that buffoon Zach Davis was somewhere knowing that his former love was enjoying a night out on the town with Derek Widener, the most influential man on the West Coast, and Davis's greatest high school nemesis.

Derek thought back to high school and recalled how much he hated Davis. While Derek poked fun at Zach regarding his skill in soccer back at the dinner party, the young billionaire accurately recalled that Zach was the only one on the soccer team to even come close to rivaling Derek's skills. Zach always seemed to be constant thorn in Derek's side. Every time he and his friends would try to pull pranks, take lunch money, or pull any other high school shenanigan, Zach was always there to stop their plans. Furthermore, the blonde haired blunder always found a way to make Derek into the school's laughing stock after thwarting his plans. The worst part of Zach Davis, in Derek's eyes was his loving relationship with his father. Derek grew up hating his dad, and never having the close relationship sons crave for with their father. Zach and his father always appeared inseparable. Derek also knew that his father's insane experiments with Zichromate led to the death of Zach's mother which probably made it so Zach and his father could be even closer…this was one more flaw Derek had against his own father.

His night was made however when he saw the pain in Zach's eyes as Amanda did her best to earn her way into Derek's good graces to earn a story. The feeling Derek received after seeing his former nemesis leave the party in defeat was far greater than any feeling that a billion dollars could create. Derek smiled maliciously to himself as he thought back to way earlier into the evening. He looked across the table to his beautiful date and spoke.

"How are you enjoying your filet?" Derek asked, "I told you, this is by far the best place in Crimson City!"

"It is absolutely delicious." Amanda spoke with a warm smile. She wasn't lying, the food at this restaurant was terrific. "It's wonderful to sit here and catch up with an old friend. (_Ok, now Amanda was lying a little…she used to hate Derek Widener in high school._) Looking at you now, I'm so impressed with the man you've become Derek! What you're doing for the world through the Purification Initiative…I wouldn't be surprised if people eventually deemed you a saint! _(Yes, Amanda realized that she was now in full-fledged 100% lie mode)_. Tell me, what's the catch? Surely a project such as the Purification Initiative will create a massive profit for Widener Corporation, am I wrong?"

Derek chuckled as he took a sip from his wine glass. "Well, to pull off such an undertaking, we will need major funding for the Purification Initiative, that's no secret. But if you're asking if I'm going to make it so impossible to pay for pure water that only the rich will benefit from this project, the answer is definitely no. I promise that when Operation Purification is in full swing, that everyone will be impacted by this great project."

"_How wonderfully ambiguous." _Amanda thought to herself as she wrote down Derek's quote on a notebook.

Derek's cell phone then began to ring. With the intention of silencing the device and continuing his meal, Derek looked down at the phone. When he saw who was calling him, Derek politely raised his finger towards Amanda with a smile, suggesting _"I'm sorry, I have to take this." _The billionaire rose from the table and moved outside and walked towards a back alley away from anyone who could possibly hear his conversation.

"I thought I made myself clear that you are never to call me on my personal cell phone." Derek's voice had changed from warm and caring towards Amanda to cold and ruthless towards his caller. "I'm not even entirely sure how you got this number…"

"I apologize for the intrusion." The voice responded, "But I feel you need to know the current status of our little…project."

"Fine…" Derek looked at his watch, "You have my attention for five minutes."

"We are almost ready to begin the REAL Purification Initiative with the toxic chemicals that your scientists have provided. I must say, I'm very impressed, I have never seen anything so deadly! We have gathered nearly enough Adulium to create the machinery needed to plague the earth's water…but we have run into that same "complication" again. Just tonight, some of our men at a local university were stopped from stealing the Adulium tanks."

"Is it the weirdo in black armor with a very well placed flamethrower again?" Derek asked sarcastically. "You'd think with the money that I'm paying you and your people that you could take care of this freak. Seriously, how hard is it to kill one man? A man of you stature in the crime world should be able to ensure the kind of help to take care of such a pest, am I wrong?"

"Well, that's the reason I'm calling." The voice responded, "You see, when I worked in line with your father we would occasionally have similar problems with these "freaks" as you call them with an overdramatic style of fighting the good fight. We also had a very effective colleague who made it his business to deal with such…trouble. I was calling to see if you would be interested in doubling our agreed upon rate and including this man's services."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Derek gritted his teeth as he could tell that the lowlife on the other side of the phone was attempting to work him. "Double the price for your thugs that so far have NOT completed the job I'm paying you all to do? What kind of fool do you take me for, Glamnok?"

"The simple truth is this…" Glamnock responded coldly, hating the condescension he was hearing from this young billionaire. "This guy who calls himself Nightblaze is better than the regular guys on my payrole. Now, this isn't the first time we've run across crap like this…Back in the day you're father knew when it was time to call in the bigger guns. I'm telling you, this is the time to do it, otherwise you can just kiss your whole operation goodbye."

There was a long pause and a sigh on Derek's end and he finally spoke calmly. "Fine then, bring him in, and pay him whatever needs. Get this creep off the streets so we can get things ready. When you gather all the Adulium my engineers will be able to construct the Purification Device that will be able to plague the waters. After that people will be willing to pay anything for the cure, which Widener Corporation will have developed. You and I will be rolling in more money then we know what to do with."

"This is a perfect scheme that rivals even your father's devious mind, Mr. Widener." Glamnock responded, "I will call you once we have taken care of this masked menace."

"Don't screw it up." Derek said coldly as he hung up the phone. He returned to the restaurant with the intention of continuing his date with Amanda. He noticed the reporter was no longer at their table. His eyes searched the room and saw no sign of the woman. As he surveyed the area, Derek quickly noticed the window next to where he was chatting with the crime lord, Victor Glamnock. It was slightly ajar, open just enough to fit a small audio recorder outside. Derek cursed under his breath as he walked out of the restaurant. "Oh Amanda Cho-Ming…what have you done to yourself…"


	4. Alloy Hits The Streets

**I'm excited to introduce you to my FIRST super villain OC in this chapter! Please drop me a REVIEW and let me know what you think of him :)  
**

**Chapter 4**

**ALLOY HITS THE STREETS**

Down on the East side of Crimson City, near the Crimson Bay, a thug ran down into a back alley trying to get away from the fearsome hero clad in black and red armor. Nightblaze had already trapped his two co-hordes by melting two metal bars around them. From everything that this crook had heard on the streets about this new vigilante, he typically just snagged and beat up one person and would let the others escape. For whatever reason, this time Nightblaze seemed to be more interested in capturing ALL those responsible for the robbery at the Crimson Research and Development Vault.

"_Crap, just my luck!" _The man in a ski mask thought as he ran through the back alley and jumped on a fire escape and began climbing to the top of the building. _"I thought if he'd snag the first two guys I could escape before he caught up to me, but that freak is hot on my tail!"_

The thug reached the roof of the building and began running fast. Surely he had lost the superhero by getting the high ground. Just as the masked man smirked with satisfaction he heard the sound of a motorcycle's manly engine revving. The robber turned around to see Nightblaze's bike riding up the wall of the building and closing in on him. The crook cursed his luck, under his breath as he watched as XLR8's wheels went from being bladed (which allowed them to climb the walls) to becoming a special kind of heat proof leather that could be driven in normal circumstances. The man backed close to the edge of the building and looked down to see if he had any escape route. Just his luck! There was a dumpster below him that was full of trash. The crook looked back at Nightblaze and smiled deviously.

"Don't do it…" Nightblaze said as he accelerated. "That's NOT a good idea!"

The thug ignored the hero and jumped off the edge and fell face first into the trash. Nightblaze skillfully jumped off the roof of the small building and landed on the ground in front of the dumpster. He parked the motorcycle and stepped off his vehicle. He shook us head as he looked at the pathetic thug who was struggling to get out of the dumpster.

"What on earth did that accomplish other than giving your clothes a distinctly bad smell? Goodness, you know I'll probably be stuck with this odor too? What'd you think, that I WOULDN'T catch you if you surrounded yourself with smelly waste? Criminals these days…you need to go back to Bad Guy school and take a few extra classes in escape methods, my friend!"

As the man still wrestled to get free from the dumpster, Nightblaze grabbed him on both sides and tossed him out of the trash and onto the hard concrete floor. The thief began to back away and begun to chuckle as Nightblaze moved closer to him. The hero turned his head in confusion, he was very puzzled as to why this man was laughing.

"Is there something funny about this poor predicament that you seem to have found yourself in?" Nightblaze asked, "Or is laughter just your coping mechanism…I mean, I'm okay with that if you are…it's just kind of weird. But, I guess it's no weirder then diving face first into a dumpster full of trash and other…crap."

"It's nothing really…" The thug responded with a wicked grin, "Just that you've fallen for what we call in the business, Plan B."

"Oh yeah?" Nightblaze cracked his knuckles, ready to rough up the mouthy baddie. "And what's Plan B?"

"You're about to meet him…" The thug spoke as he wrestled in his hoodie's pocket for a small walkie talkie. Once he found it, he pulled it out and spoke. "I've lured Nightblaze into an open area, send him in!"

Meanwhile, high in the sky far above Nightblaze a jet black helicopter flew in their general area and started to float in the sky. The side door opened and a large muscular Hispanic man with a shaved head, a white wife beater, and blue jeans, tightened the laces of his combat boots and prepared to jump off the helicopter.

"Um…are you sure you don't need a parachute or anything?" The pilot asked, very nervous about what was going on. "We have some in that cabinet behind you…"

"I'll be fine…" The man's voice was deep, low, and violent. He showed a smile of sick pleasure. "I literally live for stuff like this!"

He jumped out of the helicopter and dropped many miles and landed onto the ground near where Nightblaze was "conversing" with the thief. The fiery hero's head turned to the newcomer who dropped from the sky, as he landed onto the concrete on his feet. Where he landed, the ground shifted and crumbled slightly. The impact brought the tall burley man to one knee, but he quickly recovered.

"Woah…" Nightblaze spoke, slightly shocked at the large man that appeared next to him. "That was cool…and who are you?"

"Call me Alloy." The man spoke as he began walking closer to Nightblaze. He looked at the wimpy criminal and gave him one hard left hook to the face, knocking him out. "And I've come here to take care of you, Nightblaze…permanently."

"Alloy eh?" Nightblaze spoke as he backed up a little from the very strong and angry looking man. "You're pretty open with who you are and your intentions…you must be pretty sure of yourself, haven't you heard about what I've been doing to your friends?"

"I don't mind setting people's minds to peace before I kill them. We all deserve some peace before we become pieces, right?" Alloy said with a malicious smile as he cracked his neck. He lived for a good fight and a good kill. "Go ahead boy; ask me anything else you want. This is your last chance."

"Um okay…" Nightblaze found himself slightly taken back by this man's lack of intelligence. "Who do you work for and what are you guys up to? Why are you taking all the Adulium in Crimson City?"

"I work for the notorious crime lord, Victor Glamnock…and I don't really know what they're doing. I do know this; he and HIS boss are paying me a lot of money to kill you. So, that's why I'm here. I'm kind of a pro at killing freaks like you, Nightblaze…it started out as a hobby, but now it's become quite the lucrative business!"

"Well, something tells me you have never met someone like me!"

Nightblaze extended both his arms and out of his hands came a orange heat wave directed towards Alloy's left arm, as the man ran towards him. He had hoped to catch the man's skin on fire, but Alloy's arm became shiny and silver, and Nightblaze found himself dumbfounded. Instead of burning, it simply heated up and drew a slightly orange tint.

"That's not normal…" Nightblaze muttered as Alloy's arm began to shapeshift into a large metallic sledge hammer.

Alloy swung his hammer hand and hit Nightblaze directly in the stomach so hard that the super hero coughed up blood as he flew into a pile of cardboard boxes next to the dumpster that he had pulled the crook out of earlier. Nightblaze found himself slightly dazed and shook his head in disbelief as to what happened. He touched his ear to send a communication frequency to Eric.

"Yo Eric, are you getting all this?" Nightblaze spoke as he struggled to make it to his feet.

"Yes, and I'm already four steps ahead of you." Eric's voice rang into Nightblaze's ear. "According to the data I just gathered, you're dealing with a very notorious and very dangerous hired hand, Jose Delgado...Also known on the streets of Crimson City as Alloy."

Alloy ran towards Nightblaze and shifted his other arm into a large spiky metal mace. He attempted to smash the flame throwing hero with his mace but Nightblaze swiftly dodge the attack and moved behind the bad guy.

"I already figured that out…" Nightblaze said, his voice suggesting a sense of urgency. "Did you find out any other useful tidbits of knowledge in your little computer?"

"Well, his whole body can turn metal and into objects that he typically uses as weapons." Eric responded, as he was skimming through Alloy's bio on the FBI's classified report.

Nightblaze jumped backwards as Alloy tried to use his hammer to smash his chest again. "Jeez Eric, skip to the part in the biography when we learn how to stop this freakshow. Preferably before I become tenderized and turned into nice little Nightblaze morsels for this monster to eat."

"Um well…" Eric stammered as his brilliant mind worked to devise a strategy. "His entire body is metal, and since you have the ability to heat up to immeasurable temperatures and send out heat energy at will…I suppose you could melt him, but that seems a little inhumane, don't you think?"

"Noted…" Nightblaze said with a satisfied grin, as his arms surged with heat energy that melted the concrete around Alloy, trapping his legs. "I'll turn up the heat on this guy!"

"But…" Eric's voice was cut off by Nightblaze silencing the communicator. He knew that his best friend would attempt to give him another lecture with big words about how Nightblaze is dealing with criminals especially harshly since his breakup…Frankly, the hero wasn't in the mood to here such garbage, as there was a large man trying to mash him into a bloody pulp.

Alloy's right arm turned into a metal buzz saw that begun to turn on automatically. He cut through the concrete freeing his legs and laughed at Nightblaze's feeble attempts to contain him. "Your fancy feeble fire tricks are entertaining for a little bit, but I'm getting bored playing games with you, you little fire ant. I've been in the business of killing freaks with a little extra power like you since you were being changed by your momma. It's time to turn out your lights…permanently. "

"Well let me turn up the heat on you. " Nightblaze glared at his enemy with fire in his eyes (quite literally.) "And for your information, my mom's dead…you jerk!"

Suddenly, Then hero's communicator was turned on once again. (Eric had a nasty habit of hacking into devices that Nightblaze tried to block him from.) His voice returned to the armor clad crusader's ear in a panicked tone. "Zach! Behind you, there is a high concentration of water gathering in that bay…you better get out of the way, and QUICK!"

Nightblaze cursed as he turned and saw a massive tidal wave surge towards himself and Alloy. The hero quickly lunged behind the dumpster, wondering how on earth such a tidal wave could appear from a peaceful bay, as Alloy was hit by the water at full force. The wave hit him into a wall of one of the nearby buildings.

"Oh that was a cheap shot." Alloy sighed as he got up and shook his head, knocking the water out of his ear. "I don't know who just did that…but you got me wet, and I don't like being wet!"

Out of Crimson Bay a tall man with blonde hair, and blue eyes, wearing orange and green tights with a yellow belt appeared as he jumped very high. The man did a front flip and landed on the sidewalk next to the bay.

"My name is Aquaman, and I have some questions for you two gentlemen…and I will have my answers!"

"What is this?" Alloy got frustrated; he hated it when people interrupted his fights. His two arms became long and very sharp swords. "Who invited you, fish boy? Now I'm going to have to make myself a filet with you…and then I'll get back to my barbeque with fire trash man, over there."

"I'm here on advisement of the fish in Crimson City." Aquaman spoke as he braced himself for a fight with Alloy. "Apparently there has been development of some pretty deadly chemicals in these parts that are meant to be thrown into the ocean soon…and I'm here to stop it!"

"Good luck with that…" Alloy grumbled as he began to swing his swords at Aquaman, "I hope you don't need your head for that job!"

Nightblaze jumped back up to his feet, successfully remaining dry after narrowly avoiding the large wave. He watched as these two freaks fought it out. He smiled to himself as he released he now had his time to seriously heat things up. Nightblaze closed his eyes and concentrated very hard as his entire body begun to heat up. He then rushed all of his heat into his two arms, as he pointed them towards Alloy's left arm. Suddenly Nightblaze opened his eyes and prepared to unleash his fire.

"Hey Alloy!" Nightblaze yelled out, "You didn't think that little display of some microwaves was ALL I could do, did you? You're all wet now, let me warm you up!"

Out of Nightblaze's arms flames surged out that covered Alloy's arm. The fires were so hot that they burnt the street, and completely melted Alloy's metal arm. The criminal screamed in pain as he lost his arm. Aquaman jumped back in surprised and gasped as he looked at the bloody nub that dripped red and silver liquid. Nightblaze himself was taken back a little as he saw this graphic sight. Seeing this man in great pain, and without an arm, definitely didn't make Nightblaze feel as heroic as he hoped he would feel. Behind his mask, Zach considered all the superhero tales he read growing up…You never heard of Superman melting a man's arm off before…but this was real life, things are different…right? Nightblaze shook his doubts away, as Aquaman jumped towards Alloy with the hopes of grabbing him by the neck.

Alloy turned his attention to Aquaman and with his one strong arm grabbed the superhero by the neck and threw him into Crimson Bay. It was a very impressive throw indeed, showing that even with one arm, Alloy was still very strong. He glared at Nightblaze with hatred, and then glared at the Bay where he knew that the other hero was quickly recovering for a counter attack. As much as the assassin hated to admit it, he wouldn't be able to complete his mission here tonight.

"This isn't over, you flaming freak!" Alloy growled as he picked up a sewer cap and threw it at Nightblaze who quickly ducked, to avoid being hit by the large metal object. As the hero dodged, Alloy turned around and ran far from the heroes. At an appropriate distance, the metallic villain called in his chopper to return to pick him up.

Nightblaze rose to his feet to see Alloy flying away and a large ripple in the water where it was clear that the man known as Aquaman was swimming swiftly into the heart of Crimson City. The hero knew that he had to take care of the terrifying Alloy, but he also knew he had to investigate this new player, Aquaman, as well. Deciding his chances of catching the fast swimmer were greater than tracking the villain, Nightblaze set his sights on Aquaman.

* * *

A few hours later, Aquaman found himself climbing into a large blown up hole at the Crimson Crusade's Capital, in the center of Crimson City. The superhero found it very odd that this place had been broken into already tonight, but this unfortunate event was rather fortunate for the king of the seas, as he needed to investigate the Crusade's records for information that could be linked to the potential poisoning of the world's waters. Aquaman made his way through the rubble to the messiest looking desk that had many papers that were thrown around as if someone was already searching for some kind of information. Aquaman figured this already searched area was a very good area to start.

"Not so fast!"

Aquaman turned to see Nightblaze standing in the hole made by a large explosion. "You know, you're a fast swimmer….I had to drive halfway across town to find you, "friend", and you know how traffic is at this time of night! Now, where do you want to start…how about answering the question, Who are you? Is that to broad, how about what are you doing here?"

As Nightblaze moved closer Aquaman jumped over the table and prepared himself for an aggressive confrontation. Nightblaze began noticing the pictures around the desk the two superheroes were circling. He recognized the reporter's parents, her siblings, and finally the reporter herself…Amanda Cho-Ming. Nightblaze's eyes were drawn to the ground where saw signs of a struggle and then he noticed Amanda's cell phone. He quickly picked it up and saw that the last called made was to "Zach Davis"…Amanda would have only been calling this number if she was in dire trouble and needing the help of a super powered friend. Nightblaze glared at Aquaman, considering him the obvious suspect.

"OK I don't know how you found me so quickly…" Aquaman tried to speak calmly with Nightblaze, "but something tells me that we are not on opposite sides here."

"I'm only going to ask you once, water-boy." Nightblaze teeth gritted together as his fists started to radiate with heat. "What did you do to this reporter here? This is her phone, that she'd never leave off of her…and here you are…not looking suspicious at all, right? WRONG!"

"I literally got here a few moments before you did…" Aquaman responded, as he dropped his defenses deeming this other man as a potential ally. "My name is Aquaman…I'm here because your local marine life has warned me about a deadly toxin that has been detected in this city and if it's released into the oceans, which seems to be the intention, then that could be catastrophic to both the life in the sea but life on land. I'm here to prevent that from happening."

"I'm sorry did you just say that FISH told you about an evil plot involving poison?" Nightblaze mocked the other super hero. "You're crazy and barking up the wrong tree…"

Nightblaze began to consider tossing a fireball at Aquaman to get more answers, and then he considered what this unbelievable truth may mean. "Of course, if there WERE a highly toxic chemical that was meant to be released into the sea…they would need some very durable, practically indestructible metal containers to transport and release the chemicals in…oddly enough such metal has been stolen here in Crimson City for months now…"

"So it looks like we're both after the same culprits…" Aquaman stated as he begun to leave the Crimson Crusade office building through the large hole in the wall.

"Perhaps we can consider teaming up for this one?" Nightblaze asked, as his fists stopped flaring. "I saw what you can do back at the bay…I think I may have been a goner if it wasn't for you."

"No thanks necessary." Aquaman spoke coolly as he gave Nightblaze a cold look, "I was just doing the job of a hero with the powers that life has given me. You on the other hand…I'm not so sure about your methods, "friend"…I saw how you handled that man too. Burning his arm completely off, how inhumane! I have never seen you before, so I'm guessing you're a relatively new hero. If that's the case, you have a lot to learn about how to do things. This office seems to be a dead end. That's okay, I have other leads."

Nightblaze found himself speechless as Aquaman calmly left the Crimson Crusade. He did feel rather ashamed at his actions against Alloy, and he knew that he handled the villain in a wrong way. But at this moment, none of that mattered. Nightblaze clicked on his communicator and spoke.

"Eric, did you get all that? I think all this craziness is starting to make sense."

"I got it recorded and analyzing the data right now here on the other side." Eric responded, "You should follow that guy, he'll lead you directly to where you need to go, I think."

"No time for that." Nightblaze said as he picked up a picture of Amanda and rubbed his finger over her face. "I think they took Amanda, she must have been running a story on this thing or something. Start running a search on the name Victor Glamnock…that's who Alloy said his boss was…he also said that Glamnock had another boss…If we find them, maybe we'll find Amanda."

"Okay, I'm running a search now…we'll have an address soon! Why the heck would Amanda be looking into a story like this?" Eric asked, "How the heck would she have known who these guys were before us?"

"Eric…" Nightblaze's voice became emotionless and dead serious. "Amanda was doing a story on Derek Widener…she must have found some skeletons in the closet. Eric, I hate to beat a dead horse, but I think it's entirely possible that Derek is Glamnock's boss..."

* * *

Meanwhile in an undisclosed location, in a very dimly lit room, Alloy sat on a metal bench staring at his nub and cursing Nightblaze for that cheap shot he took. The door to his private quarters opened, and Victor Glamnock entered with a Widener Tech Scientist.

"How the heck could YOU have lost your arm at the hands of this guy rolling around on a motorcycle in a black mask?" Glamnock demanded as he looked at Alloy's pathetic body. "I thought surely YOU could have taken care of this pest…it's just one super powered peon, back in the day you took care of these freaks all the time, Alloy!"

"There were two of them…" Alloy muttered, "He got a cheap shot off on me! Nightblaze can be powerful if wants to be…I'd love to go another round with him, I'd kill him so fast that he wouldn't know what hit him..."

"Not in your current condition you wouldn't." The Italian scientist spoke, "But you are still on Mr. Glamnock's payrole, and so you still have a job to do. Luckily for all of us, I've secured enough Adulium to fuse with your metal exterior. Thanks to the technology developed in Widener Tech's Biogenetics program, and this indestructible metal, I'll be able to build you a new arm that not even Nightblaze can burn off. Then maybe even a dumb oaf like you could finish the job you're paid to do."

"Big talk from a Widener employee." Alloy grumbled violently as he looked at the scrawny scientist. "What's to stop me from killing you right now?"

"Relax Alloy, we all know you've had a tough day." Glamnock spoke casually with a vile smile. "But there is no need for violence here…all of us are actually on the same team, that is ever since our dear scientist had changed sides from Widener's to ours. Yes, soon all of us will have exactly what we what…Our good doctor here will make an enormous amount of money, I'll be turning the tables on Derek Widener and robbing him of everything he's worth and making myself that much more powerful, and you my dear Alloy…not only will you get a shiny new arm, but you'll have your revenge on Nightblaze. How does that sound, my old friend?"

"I can't wait for round 2." Alloy said as he clenched his fist. "I'm going to tear that maggot to shreds."

* * *

**OK, so you all probably know this but I need to say it just in case...I don't own Aquaman, he's making a guest appearance in this story but he is NOT my character...he's a DC Comics hero, which btw... i don't own the DC universe either. If I did, you wouldn't be reading Nightblaze fanfiction but watching him in a movie :)**

**Until next chapter friends!  
**


	5. New Enemies and New Allies

**Chapter 5**

**NEW ENEMIES AND NEW ALLIES**

Amanda Cho-Ming was still trying to process the terrifying events that had just taken place. After deciding to ease drop on Derek Widener's conversation on their "date", she discovered that the billionaire heir to Widener Corporation was working together with one of Crimson City's most fabled crime lords, Victor Glamnock on a plot that involved poisoning the earth's water and selling the antidote to the highest bidder. Upon recording Derek's incriminating remarks from his phone conversation, Amanda raced back to her desk at the ground floor of the Crimson Crusade to begin writing her news article. She stayed late at the Crusade's office, and late into the evening there was a massive explosion in one of the walls of the office. Several thugs busted in, tied Amanda up in her chair, put a black sack over her head, and took her back into their vehicle and drove off. The woman tried to resist ,and even try to call Zach as it was an emergency that was fit perfectly for his particular skill set, unfortunately Amanda was overpowered b y the four men. From what she heard as the lowlifes grabbed her, before they left the newspaper headquarters, the men ransacked her desk trying to find her recorder. (Which thankfully, they never did!)

"_Way to go, Amanda!" _the beautiful reporter thought to herself as they pulled the bag off her face. _"Your first big story in Crimson City news and you find yourself being abducted by creeps. Well, at least we know that this is a big story. Jeez, this is the exact stuff that I tried to get away from when leaving Wellington and ending things with Zach…and here you are again, Amanda…as usual, you really stepped in over your head, girl!"_

Amanda observed her surroundings; she was in a dimly lit factory area, that was clearly the very bottom, practically sub terrain floor of a building. It was cold, and misty. Amanda was curious, was she brought to the spot where Derek and Victor would be polluting the water?

Not even a second after Amanda started to think of that disgusting man, Derek Widener stepped out from a foggy corner and walked in front of his captive. Last time Amanda saw Derek, he was dressed in the finest clothing. This time however, Derek was decked in all black: a long black trench coat, a black T shirt, and black pants, and black shoes and socks. Derek circled Amanda's chair slowly, with his hand creepily brushing her back. Derek shook us head calmly in disappointment.

"Oh Amanda…" Derek's voice sounded evil, and somewhat disheartened. "If only you weren't such a good little Nancy Drew. I could have made you the queen of my new empire…but now that it seems you've uncovered my little secret, well…we just can't have that can we?"

"I'd never be your "Queen"." Amanda mocked the pale menace. "You're out of your mind Derek if you think what you're doing here is remotely a good idea! And don't think you're getting away with it. Sicko's like you never get away with this kind of stuff."

Derek halted his movement and took his hand off Amanda. He closed his eyes briefly, taking a moment to contain his anger incited from Amanda's previous statements. After a short moment, he retained his calm composure and then Derek spoke once more. "Well, at least I know there was never really a chance for us…now I can have you killed without feeling any remorse."

"You don't even have the stones to do it yourself?" Amanda challenged, her backbone speaking way before her mind had a chance to think about what she was saying.

"My dear," Derek said as he motioned a few men with pistols to enter the room. "when you have the kind of money that I have…these kind of uncomfortable activities are what you pay others to do for you. Too bad you'll never understand this very enjoyable sensation."

As one of Derek's soldier's raised his pistol at Amanda's head, a large metal door near them opened up. The metal slammed into the wall as Victor Glamnock, a few of his lackeys, and Alloy (with both arms) entered the large room.

"Mr Widener!" Victor spoke cheerfully and loudly as he entered the scene, "The Adulium vents have been successfully constructed underwater and we are ready to begin setting lose your wonderful poison to plague the seas rapidly! I just wanted to make sure you had successfully procured enough of the antidote to reverse the disease once our world leaders request such treatment…should they have the right price, of course."

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?" Derek snapped at Victor condescendingly.

"Oh yes, it looks like you're taking care of a particularly attractive female who may know too much for her own good." The fifty year old crime lord stared at Amanda with lustful eyes. "No worries, we'll continue our business once you're fine employees here dispose of this nuisance."

"Our business is done." Derek waved his hand at Victor without acknowledging him with a face to face interaction. "I have all I need from you, and you're money will be wired to you shortly. Leave me be and I'll administer the plague through our mock Purification Initiative whenever I please. No go, Glamnock, and do whatever it is that you and your fellow cretins do when you're not in the presence of true brilliance."

"I remember when we first met you told me that you wanted to be nothing like your father." Victor spoke, his voice now cold and his face was as serious as a hard attack. The crime lord raised his finger up, and his lackeys surrounded Derek. "I'll put your mind to ease; you and Cornelius Widener have very little in common. Obviously you two share some physical features, both of you have a voice that is rather annoying to me, and I suppose you both share that snobby arrogance that makes me hate the rich more very day. One thing that you, my boy, are sorely lacking that Widener Sr. wasn't horrible at, was tack and respect for collogues. I told you when we began working together, Derek, that you're in my business now…and you have a lot to learn about the crime business. For example, rule number one: Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer…because the tide of the stream can turn at any time."

Derek, looked around to see many men with guns preparing to shoot him down. He smiled, as he had anticipated this very act. "Why Victor, have you staged a little rebellion here? What on earth gave you the idea that you in fact had the leverage? Was it perhaps a wayward scientist that wanted to change sides for a higher price? Oh, I remember that employee of mine…I told him he'd get an extra Christmas bonus if he made his part convincing, and it looks like he can splurge on the home decorations this year!" Derek snapped his fingers, and several Widener tech security officers with rifles ran into the room and surrounded the men that surrounded Derek.

"We've been set up!" Victor yelled at his men, "Lets clean house in here boys, kill everyone and make sure we get all the resources necessary to proceed with the Purification Initiative. We have not lost yet!"

Victor and Derek moved swiftly in opposite directions and out of the way of the gunfire, as lackeys and security officers started to gun each other down. Derek ran behind the chair that Amanda was still imprisoned in, grabbed a metal suitcase, and began to run up the stairs and out of the basement.

"That little snot is not getting away from me!" Victor said as he ran through the gunfire (without being hit, of course), "Alloy, take over here, eliminate all these insects! I have some closing business to attend to with Mr. Widener!"

As Victor followed Derek, Alloy jumped into the middle of the scene and turned his body into hard metal. Every Widener security guard focused gunfire on Alloy, but their bullets bounced off his hard skin. Alloy's left hand became a large blade and he began cutting down the security. Suddenly far from where Amanda was sitting, the floor erupted in a geyser and a flood appeared that took out all of Glamnock's lackeys, Widener's security team, and knocked Alloy to his feet. The water stopped moving directly at Amanda's feet. She gave a great sigh as the reporter thought that she too would have had a very watery grave.

Aquaman leapt out of the Geyser and rushed towards Alloy, who was slowly standing up and punched him in the face so hard that the metal man fell back to the ground. The king of the sea grabbed Alloy by the neck with the intention of knocking him in the face again, but the hitman shifted his right arm and fist into hard metal and gave Aquaman an intense punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of the hero.

As the two tussled, high in the rafters of this sub terrain basement, Nightblaze saw his opportunity to rescue Amanda from harm's way. The hero dressed in black pressed his earpiece and began speaking to his comrade. "Eric, I just got here in the knick of time! When your computer predicted Glamnock's most logical hideout based on the information we gathered it was right! I'm not too sure what all's going on…Aquaman is here and he's getting his butt kicked by Alloy, who has his arm back by the way…but I found Amanda, I'm going to bring her outside at the west entrance, have XLR8 waiting for me out there so we can get Amanda to safety."

"Copy that Nightblaze." Eric's voice resonated through the communicator, "turning on XLR8's auto pilot system right now…she'll be out there waiting for you when you get out!"

Nightblaze leapt off the rafters and landed on the ground not far from Amanda. He ran behind her and lit his hand on fire to singe the ropes that the thugs had used to tie her up. As Nightblaze appeared, Alloy saw the man he had sworn to kill by the end of the day, kicked Aquaman off of him, and ran towards Nightblaze.

"Amanda, get out of the way!" Nightblaze spoke as he shoved Amanda out of Alloy's path. As the metal villain closed in on Nightblaze, the hero shot a wave of fire towards Alloy, planning on using a similar strategy as before.

As the surge of fire rushed towards Alloy, he raised his left arm and turned it into a giant metal shield. Nightblaze was stunned to see that arm didn't even to start melt. The hero hadn't made his fire as hot as before when he took Alloy's arm off, but he had definitely intended the heat to damage the metallic bad guy.

"You actually did me a favor when you burnt off my arm last time we fought." Alloy responded with a wicked laugh, as he looked at his heated up left arm. "They used a little of that Adulium that Glamnock's boys have been stealing to fuse into my new arm and made it indestructible! Thanks for helping me get a fire proof arm, Nightblaze! Now it's time for me to return the favor…"

"I'm REALLY starting to regret burning his arm off now!" Nightblaze muttered as he prepared himself for Alloy's right arm which was now a metal baseball bat swinging towards him.

Suddenly, Aquaman lunged forward and tackled Alloy to the ground. He quickly turned and barked an order at Nightblaze. "Get the girl out of here! I'll take care of this guy, don't worry about me. You came here for her, now be a hero and get the job done!"

Nightblaze moved quickly over to Amanda, who had fallen on the ground, helped her up, and the two raced out through a different door then Derek had retreated through. Nightblaze led Amanda upstairs to the first floor, and then once he left the stairwell, the flame thrower began surging massive fires out of his hands to burn through several walls, making himself a door out to the west entrance of the building. Just as he had requested, when Nightblaze and Amanda made it through the burning rubble to the outdoors, his motorcycle was waiting for him.

"Wow…" Amanda admired the bike, as the two got on it. "_This_ is a new addition to the superhero thing… It's hot!"

"Yeah, I figured it'd be a chick magnet." Nightblaze replied with a suave smile.

"No, you moron…" Amanda responded, "It's hot as in…temperature. How the heck am I supposed to sit on this thing?"

"Eric, do you have some kind of setting for normal people on this thing?" Nightblaze asked as the two began speeding down the road away from the crime scene.

"I'm turning on the backseat coolant system right now." Eric responded, "Amanda should be a lot more comfortable."

"Wait, wait!" Amanda yelled out as she hit Nightblaze's back. "What the heck are you doing?"

Nightblaze quickly slammed on the breaks and slid the motorcycle a bit as he reached a screeching halt. "I'm trying to save your butt, that's what. I'm sorry, did you WANT to stay in that building?"

"No I get that…" Amanda responded, "And I get that with you, Zach, there's always been a degree of expecting the unexpected. I'd consider it very unexpected that in the past ten minutes I almost got shot, chopped by a guy that can become metal, or drowned by a guy that entered a room through busting the floor with a large flood that he probably created…But one thing that I never thought I'd see, is Nightblaze running from the scene of a crime without saving everyone, fixing everything, and getting the bad guys. Come on Zach, where's the superhero that I know? What is this crap? You get a new bike and you become a sissy?"

"I came here to save you…" Nightblaze replied as he looked deep into Amanda's beautiful blue eyes.

"And you did," Amanda said with a smile as she got off the bike. "I can take care of myself from here. Now go back there and save everyone else…that's what heroes do, and you're a hero…Nightblaze."

And at this moment, Zach Davis knew why he was so madly in love with Amanda Cho-Ming. When he was around her, she brought out the real Nightblaze, the real superhero that we would want to read books about. The past few months without Amanda, Zach had been going on 50% hero…being in her presence and listening to her encouraging, and somewhat discouraging, pep talks, Zach recalled what it meant to be the hero he had dedicated his life to be. Zach reved his engine and prepared to take XLR8 back to the Widener Research Facility, Amanda put on hand on Zach's back affectionately and spoke softly to him. "But be careful….there are a lot of freaks in there. Stay alive, Zach."

Without knowing what to say, Nightblaze sped off back in the direction from which he came, his job wasn't done yet.

* * *

Meanwhile, Glamnock chased Derek up to the roof of Widener Tech's Research building. The billionaire was nowhere to be seen, but Victor knew that he could not be far.

"There's nowhere to run, Derek." Victor barked as he loaded his gun. "I'm going to kill you now. It's what your father would have wanted. I think he would have been really disappointed at how sloppy you are. Cornelius was always two steps ahead of the game. I would have killed him myself, but he never gave me an opening…unlike you."

"When I told you that I am nothing like my father, I think you misunderstood me." Derek spoke as he appeared out of the shadows and pointed his pistol at Victor's head. "To put simply, I'm better then my father ever was. I'm smarter, stronger, more ruthless, and far more brilliant. If you thought Cornelius Widener wasn't somebody you want to mess with, you should have multiplied that feeling by two hundred percent when it comes to me…I'm sorry that this information is too little too late for you, Victor Glamnock."

Derek shot his gun three times, and upon the impact of the head shots, Glamnock fell face first off the building and hit the concrete street, dead. As the billionaire looked out at his dead rival, he saw Nightblaze riding back into the facility on his flaming motorcycle. Derek cursed as he saw the hero enter the building. "Glamnock couldn't even take care of that freak! If I leave now I can leave, but the mess here will ruin my company! I still can release the poison on my way out…I have enough of the purification antidote at other facilities around Crimson City that I could still make a huge profit…all is not lost yet!"

With that thought, Derek rushed back downstairs to where he had placed the plague. At the same time, Nightblaze rushed in to lend a helping hand to Aquaman, who was currently being bested by the villain Alloy. Nightblaze knew that there was no alternate…He was going to save Aquaman and stop Derek's evil scheme. As Nightblaze returned to the crime scene he had this thought, _"There is no plan B, because that distracts from plan A."_

__**Well my friends, the next chapter will be the epic conclusion of Nightblaze Issue #1: The Purification Initiative. I hope you've enjoyed this story and what I want to know is if you would like more? I have big plans for Nightblaze, and would love to know if he has a fanbase so please drop a review if you'd like to see his tale continue! **

**The final chapter and epilogue will be released soon!  
**


	6. Saving Crimson City

**Well, here it is ladies and gentlemen...the last chapter of Nightblaze's first short story. It's longer then the others, but that's because a ton of awesome things happen! As I have said in the other 5 chapters, please let me know what you think. I'm especially interested if you think I should continue my Nightblaze stories! Anyway, read on my friends.  
**

**Chapter 6:**

**SAVING CRIMSON CITY**

Back at the below ground basement of the Widener Research Facility, Aquaman was struggling in his battle with Alloy. The hero found himself growing tired, and unable to summon as much water as usual when he created his waves that were thrown towards the metallic thug. Alloy on the other hand seemed impervious to fatigue, and like a machine, kept coming at Aquaman full force. It got to a point where Aquaman was out of breath, and struggling to stay standing. Alloy, with his big burley muscles, picked up the superhero by his orange shirt with one arm, and used the other to punch him repeatively in the face. Aquaman spat out blood as he was beginning to get dizzy and felt his consciousness fade.

"If you think that getting me wet is enough to keep me down," Alloy's deep voice trembled as the lust of blood excited him for more fighting, "then you DESERVE this beatdown, water boy!"

Sneaking behind large metal crates in the basement, Nightblaze watched the pummeling of Aquaman and knew he needed to act quickly. The hero had the element of surprise on his side, and he definitely didn't want to waste that asset.

"Nightblaze!" Eric spoke into Nightblaze's ear. "I just wanted to remind you that this whole room has been completely soaked during the battle between Alloy and Aquaman. Your suit's telling me that your hydration levels are slowly starting to rise…you're only about 5 percent hydrated right now, but there are plenty of opportunities to get wet down there…be careful!"

Nightblaze knew the risks of what he was about to do. Zach Davis was a very unordinary man due to the chemical makeup of his blood system, which was a mysterious mixture of normal blood and enough concentrated Zichromate that there is no logical reasoning that could explain why Zach was still able to live. As a result of this chemical reaction that was a scientific quandary, Zach was able to heat up his body to immeasurable amounts. He was also able to maintain balance and control over any kind of heat. He could mend and manipulate fire, and even create it through raising his body to high temperatures. Zach's body had one more peculiarity thanks to the mysterious element within him. As the hero interacted with water, his temperature would decrease until he was dry. Drinking a glass of water, washing his hands…these "normal" things didn't have much noticeable effect on Zach. But should he find himself swimming in a lake, having an excessive amount of water poured on him, or in a severe rainstorm…Zach's body would reach a state of temporarily normality. He would not be able to use his powers until he found a way to dehydrate himself. Thanks to Zach's extraordinary make up, this didn't take as long as it would for others…but needless to say, when being present in a damp room full of water and wet things, getting wet in the presence of Alloy was one thing Zach Davis DIDN'T want to happen.

"Aquaman's not going to last much longer against that psycho." Nightblaze's resolve could be identified in his voice. "He didn't want to team up with me because he didn't think I was much of a hero…I want to take this chance save him and to prove him wrong. To be honest, up until recently I probably would have agreed with Aquaman's first impression of me, but Amanda helped me see otherwise. Eric, I need a distraction."

"Do you have anything special in mind?"

"Using your XLR8 auto pilot system, take control of my motorcycle, and crash it into Alloy." Nightblaze sighed as he thought about ruining his nice bike.

"But…"

"I know." Nightblaze sympathized with Eric.

"That thing took me months to make…" Eric grumbled, "Really? I mean, do we need that big of a distraction…I can kill the lights, I can set alarms off…how about hacking into the US government and sending in some of SWAT'S finest? If you give me a minute, I could pull that off too!"

"No I need something that's going to give him a big bruise, and slow him down a bit while I make sure Aquaman's okay." Nightblaze responded, "I'm already feeling a little weaker then usual, so I'll have to use XLR8 to give me a little extra "boom" to my explosion."

There was a long pause, and Eric responded. "Copy that, she should be crashing in within a matter of seconds."

Alloy gave Aquaman another punch for good measure, and then tossed him on the steel floor, against a wall and next to the large hole that the superhero came into the basement through. As Alloy walked slowly towards Aquaman he shared with him a evil smile of murderous intent, as his left arm started to shift into a large battle axe.

"I had hoped to kill Nightblaze tonight," Alloy said as he inched closer to Aquaman "but we don't always get what we want. I guess we have that in common, I imagine you were hoping to continue to living today…but that's not going to happen. I'll get that fire starter some other time, tonight, you'll just have to settle my appetite!"

Suddenly, just as Alloy raised his axe arm and prepared to slice Aquaman in half, XLR8 busted through one of the doors leading to the staircases out of the basement. It was going well over two hundred MPH on its own, and as Nightblaze saw the vehicle searing in he created a large fireball and threw it at his motorcycle. As the bike burned, it became overpowered with heat and probably reached a speed over three hundred MPH, as it hit Alloy and sent him through another wall. The Fireball was so powerful, it blew up the motorcycle and created a firestorm within the small maintenance closet that Alloy was pushed into due to XLR8's high impact.

"Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it." Nightblazed muttered to Alloy, as he ran over to check the status of Aquaman.

The superhero was barely holding on to his consciousness, but he was breathing. Nightblaze tried to shake his shoulders to get a response from Aquaman, but after his fight with Alloy, the blonde haired man was to beat up. The hero in black saw the large hole leading into Crimson Bay next to them. He considered what water does to him, a individual who had control over the plane of fire. _"Maybe it will have the opposite effect on someone who has control over water." _Nightblaze thought as he held Aquaman's body into the water, his head completely submerged.

"I really hope I'm right about this." Nightblaze thought out loud as he held Aquaman under the water, "Otherwise I'm going to have to come up with an interesting way of explaining how I accidently drowned the first superhero I ever met."

As Nightblaze had his ally submerged, strength began to rapidly return to Aquaman. Suddenly the man's arms moved to push Nightblaze off of him. Aquaman allowed himself to fall into the Bay, and within a few minutes jumped out of the water, fully rejuvenated.

"I owe you my life, Nightblaze." Aquaman said as he put his hand on Nightblaze's shoulder. "You didn't have to come back for me, but I'm glad you did."

"You helped me accomplish my mission, and now I am going to help you accomplish yours." Nightblaze responded. "Or have you been too busy getting beat up by Alloy that you forgot about the fact that Derek Widener is about to poison Crimson Bay and kill all your fish friends?"

Aquaman realized that by now Widener could be at a prime distribution point in the facility to release his toxin. The hero of the sea also considered Alloy, who was beginning to moan in pain as he slowly started to walk through the fires and back into the scene.

"Don't worry about the can opener over there." Nightblaze said as Aquaman helped him to his feet. "I'll take care of him, you go do what you came to do."

The two heroes nodded out of mutual respect for each other, and Aquaman rushed out of the basement the same way that Derek had left not to long ago. Nightblaze turned his attention to Alloy who now had walked over the flames and was moving closer to him. His head had a massive cut in it, which was gushing blood that was colored both red and silver. His right arm was dislocated out of place, and also dripping lots of blood. His shirt had been burnt completely off and most of his chest looked like charcoal.

"You look like you could use a band aid." Nightblaze mocked his adversary. "Come on, big man…you've lost, let's call it quits! If you give up now, I promise I'll go upstairs, find a first aid kit, and help you patch up those bruises."

Alloy didn't respond verball, but slowly grabbed his right arm with his left arm, and with one quick jerk, popped it back into place. After both his arms were semi-recovered, he used his hands to crack his neck. Nightblaze watched as the silver blood all over Alloy's body seemed to give the man some kind of rejuvenating sensation. His skin began to return to its mocha color as the burns disappeared.

"Didn't think he'd give up…" Nightblaze talked to himself as he watched this amazing sight. "But I really didn't project that this would be happening either…Come on man, that's not fair! What the heck are you?"

"I never had an injury that I couldn't recover from in all the years that I hunted people like us." Alloy's heart was full of so much rage right now that he couldn't come up with a quick comeback or cheesy insult. "I've killed quite my share of people like us. And the ones I didn't kill, man we had some pretty intense fights, and I always won….that is until I met you, Nightblaze…and you gave me the first injury that my body couldn't recover from without scientific help."

"Well, by my count…" Nightblaze interjected as he did his best not to be intimidated by this crazy man. "Yeah, I burnt your arm off…but you got a new one, so we're even right? How about a truce? I'd really like to go make sure, you know…my city's water isn't poisoned."

Alloy paused as he digested the hero's comment. He started to chuckle softly. Nightblaze was becoming further and further convinced that the man had lost his mind. After a few moments of soft laughter, Alloy calmly responded once again. "Yeah, but that's just it…I'm never even with anyone. "

Suddenly the rage that Alloy was bottling inside of him came to the surface, and Nightblaze saw it flaring in the Hispanic man's brown eyes. Alloy's left arm became a large meat tenderizer as he ran towards the superhero and yelled "That's why you have to die!"

As Alloy threw his spiky mallet down towards Nightblaze's skull, the hero quick dodged to the right and Alloy found his arm stuck in the steel ground. Nightblaze backed up and prepared himself for Alloy's next move. The villain struggled to get his arm out of the steel that he had busted a hole in. Nightblaze smirked as he felt more comfortable about this battle, since Alloy's intelligence seemed to rival that of a metal meat tenderizer that his arm resembled.

"I'm sorry; do you need a HAND Alloy?" Nightblaze spoke as he stretched out his arms to ready a fire blast. "Don't worry, I know you don't much care for me…I'll keep an ARMS length distance from you!"

"What are you going to do now?" Alloy provoked his enemy as he struggled to get his arm free, "You know you CAN defeat me and go save your city…but that's only if you melt my entire body like you did my left arm. But if you shoot that fire at me, you better make it count! Because I promise when I get this arm out, I'm going to crush you!"

Nightblaze hesitated. At first he WAS going to melt Alloy, but that wasn't the kind of hero he wanted to be. He didn't want to be the guy that the others heroes like Aquaman didn't want to team with because they frowned on his tactics. He didn't want to face another disappointing look from Eric back at the hideout that was shortly followed by another guilt arousing lecture. Most importantly, Nightblaze didn't want to be the kind of hero that Amanda Cho-Ming would unable to count on. She taught Zach that he wasn't a runner, Zach also knew from the bottom of his heart that he wasn't a murderer either.

Unfortunately, in that hesitation, Alloy was able to use his superior strength (that was brought on by a much stronger left arm, thanks to the Adulium fusion) to rip his arm out of the floor. As the thug ripped his arm free, he also stripped a large plate of metal that was directly under Nightblaze's feet. Suddenly, as the floor quite literally was ripped from Nightblaze's feet, he fell into the water of the Crimson Bay. Before he got too far into the cold lake, he felt a large muscular arm grab him and pull him out of the water and hold him in the air.

"We're not done playing yet." Alloy sneered at Nightblaze, as he punched him hard in the stomach and threw him into a large metal structure.

Nightblaze coughed painfully, as the impact of the punch knocked the air out of him. As he flew into the metal box and fell to the ground in agony, the hero felt the lack of strength in his body. He could tell that he was at this moment powerless, and a sitting duck to Alloy. The hero didn't completely panic, because fire wasn't the only thing that made Nightblaze a formidable opponent. He also had a best friend that he was in contact with who was genius and could come up with a strategy to get out of any situation.

"Eric," Nightblaze winced in pain and could barely speak. "Eric do you copy? I got myself in a bit of a jam here…"

There was no response. Nightblaze realized that his communicator must have shorted out when he fell into the water. Nightblaze cursed as he now thought about how important it was to invest in waterproof equipment so that he wouldn't find himself in this kind of situation.

"_I'm on my own." _Nightblaze thought as he looked around the room trying to think of a means of winning. _"I have to come up with something…If I had Eric around, what would he tell me right now? Probably something very geeky…something about metal that would help me come up with a weakness of Alloy to pick on. Last time he said that metal melts…what else does metal do." _Nightblaze continued to look around him and noticed the large box that he was leaning up against. It had a large orange sticker with many black lightning bolt symbols on it. Nightblaze read the label, HIGH VOLTAGE. The superhero smiled as he saw a way out of this predicament. _ "What else does metal do? It conducts electricity!"_

"What's with that panicked look, Nightblaze?" Alloy taunted, "No comeback? No smart alac response? You're losing your touch! You know for a second there, it looked like you were kind of scared…"

Suddenly Alloy's lights turned on as he realized that the hero had plenty of time to shoot out a fire if he wanted to defend himself from Alloy. It occurred to the villain that since he pulled Nightblaze out of the water, the hero seemed surprisingly _normal._

"Oh that's too funny!" Alloy began to laugh as his right arm turned into a buzz saw. He continued speaking through his laughter. "If you get wet you can't set things on fire? Oh man, that's so pathetic I can't even think of a way to make fun of it! How do you put yourself in situations like this if you know its so easy to lose your powers? And you know what the saddest part of all this is, Nightblaze? If you had only melted my entire body when you had the chance, you would have been able to walk out of here alive! That's the difference between you and I…I know what it takes to win, and you just don't have it in you to be a winner!"

"You know, I think I'm starting to figure you out too." Nightblaze spoke as he begun to stand up straight and move his hurting body slowly to Alloy. "You've been so fixated since I burnt your arm off on "settling the score" as if we've known each other for years…You talk about how you used to kill people "like us", but you don't even know me! Just then, you talked about "the difference between you and me" as if you knew plenty of similarities. It's clear you think there is some kind of connection between me and you just because of our extraordinary gifts. Here's a newsflash Alloy…I am nothing like you! You're a crazy, psychotic killer, who is uses his powers to harm other people and make this world a worse place. Me on the other hand…yeah I know I have my issues and I'm far from perfect…but I'm trying to do what I can to stop freaks like you from doing whatever you please just because you have the power to do so. You have more in common with Derek Widener then me. You think just because you can turn your hand into a sword you can kill people, and he thinks just because he has the money he can use it through schemes like this crazy water plague idea to exploit the rich…Well, news flash part 2…I'm going to stop you right now, and then I'm going to stop him!"

"Good luck without your pyrotechnics!" Alloy cried out in anger as he tried to chop through Nightblaze with his buzz saw.

With just enough strength to make it happen, Nightblaze hurled himself on the ground and slid under Alloy's enormous legs thanks to the wet surface and the hero's soaked body. The man made of metal's arm chopped deep into the high voltage box, and electricity surged through his body. Alloy screamed in intense pain as the volts shot up and down his lightning rod of a body. Nightblaze knew that if he left Alloy like this for too much longer, he would surely die. The injured hero hobbled over to the burning wreckage where his motorcycle laid in pieces. He saw, past the embers of a raging fire in front of him, one of the large black leather tires. Nightblaze hesitated as he looked at the flames, remembering that he was currently powerless.

"_Well Davis,"_ Nightblaze thought to himself, _"Guess it's time for you to get a little taste of what everyone feels when they mess with you. Serves you right for falling into that bay, moron." _

Nightblaze closed his eyes and expected to feel, for the first time in his life, the painful sensation of being burned. It was as he moved quickly through the flames toward the tire, that he experienced a new sensation. As the hero moved into the fire, his body absorbed the heat and Nightblaze could feel his body drying off and dehydrating. Instead of being hurt like a normal person, Nightblaze regained his strength…he actually currently felt stronger then before!

Not having enough time to enjoy this new sensation, Nightblaze grabbed the tire and ran back to where Alloy was being electrocuted. Nightblaze took the tire and with all of his strength, hit Alloy away from the high voltage box. Even after losing contact with the source of electricity, Alloy's body still convulsed as lightning maneuvered through it. The man took many steps backwards and then fell into the hole that Aquaman had created to the bay.

"Nightblaze!" the red headed hero turned around to see a frantic Aquaman behind him. "I've checked this entire facility and I can't find Derek Widener! Is it possible that he left without letting lose the plague?"

"No…" Nightblaze pondered that idea, "Derek is way too competitive for that. The man doesn't have a word in his vocabulary for losing. He must have become desperate once we came…he'll try to do something really stupid."

"You speak like you know the man?" Aquaman asked, curious.

"We have a history…" Nightblaze replied, "This facility was MADE for the purpose of releasing that stuff…so where would he do it at?"

Suddenly, Nightblaze had an "ah ha!" moment. It made sense why this was the only Widener Research Facility next to the bay…Widener needed a large source of water to poison before he took his show to the rest of the world.

"Oh Aquaman, we're idiots!" Nightblaze said as he started to run out of the building, Aquaman following behind him. "Derek made this facility to throw off Glamnock and anyone else who got onto his plot like us. All he needed was people to make those Adulium containers to contain the poison…if it's toxic enough, I'd imagine he could just release it wherever he wanted! Even right outside into our very own Crimson Bay!"

The two ran down the street towards the bay and saw Derek Widener standing at one of the ports kneeling down with his metal suitcase. The pale faced criminal with blue eyes opened up the suitcase and pulled out a silver Adulium canister full of a green gas that was clearly the poison that Widener Corporation scientists had created.

"Derek! Don't do it!" Nightblaze yelled as the two stopped running once they hit the port, where Derek could see them.

"Move an inch, either of you, and I release this stuff." Derek put his arm out, holding the canister over the water. "I've seen you both in action now…you have incredible power, but in the time it takes you to launch water or fire at me, I could drop this in."

"You don't want to do this…" Nightblaze spoke to his childhood nemesis. "Don't you understand that countless people will die? Is that really worth making a profit from?"

"Absolutely!" Derek said, villainous passion filling his eyes. "This is about more than the money, you ignorant buffoon! You see, freaks like you two…the World recognizes you because of your power. Those of us that haven't been given such handouts have to make our own way through the use of mental brilliance and power forged through economics! I've been blessed with both, so it's only natural that I become the icon that this world looks up to as the pinnacle of Greatness! You see, I've already made the arrangements…tomorrow morning the press will receive word that the Purification Initiative was broken into and sabotaged by the crime lord, Victor Glamnock…and his two accomplices, Nightblaze and…you in the orange and green tights, I never really got your name…oh whatever…Glamnock was stopped by my security, but you two managed to reverse the technology within the purification system which then poisons Crimson City's water supply. Of course, we'll have to bend the truth a _little_, and mention how you two escaped my ironclad security and began releasing canisters of the Plague all over the world. I'll give it a few weeks, maybe a month…and yes, I've calculated roughly about ten thousand people will be expected to die in this time. However, after enough time has passed, all over the world papers will have stories of Widener Corporation and the anti-plague they have developed to cure and purify the water, riding the world of the poison that YOU TWO released. Of course, after tomorrow, the two of you may want to consider a life of hiding in the shadows, as it may not be long until you are deemed threats to national security. I on the other hand, within a month will be considered the single greatest man that this world has ever known. From there, the opportunities for me will be endless! The power, the fame…everyone in the world will know the name Derek Widener and second to Jesus, I will be the most revered man on Earth! That, you foolish vigilantes, is the true Purification Initiative

"Do you really just expect us to stand by and let you do all that?" Nightblaze growled, as his hatred for Derek Widener reached a new depth. "All this trouble, just so you can fill your horribly large and egotistical appetite. You make me sick, Widener…You're the real plague that this world should be saved from."

"Careful, Nightblaze!" Aquaman spoke softly to his partner, "Regardless of the history between the two of you, if Derek drops that canister your city is done for. It sickens me that he'd kill off an entire city just to make a statement to the world that he'd then use to make himself seem like a hero…I have never met such a vile man! Argh, if only that was a regular container…then you could melt it and everything in it including the toxic gas before it touched the water!"

"If only…" Nightblaze said, as he pondered that strategy. The truth was, since the fires in the research facility had rejuvenated the hero, Nightblaze had felt as if he had an oversupply of heat energy. He didn't know what this sensation was, but he knew that _something_ was different…maybe he could burn through the ultimate metal? Nightblaze also took a moment to consider the fact that the heroes really had no other strategy. Of course, for the hero to do this, he knew that it probably meant significant damage to Derek Widener. If targeted correctly, Nightblaze figured he wouldn't kill the villain, but with this mysterious overcharge, he had no idea what to expect.

"What's to stop me from lighting you on fire right now with that canister?" Nightblaze provoked Derek. "You've read about me, you even hired a super freak to try to kill me…you know what I'm capable of and you know how long I've been working to stop you and this plan. Here we are right now in the final moment, what's to stop me from lighting this entire place up?"

"Your pathetic morals." Derek responded as he continued to hold the canister over the water. "I've read all about heroes like you two! You go around, sticking your noses into other people's business to try and "save the day". Why? Not because you care about them…no its so you can be given the title of "hero". Really, if you think of it, Nightblaze, what you and I are doing here is actually not that different. We both are playing a game in which the object is to become the legend in the eyes of the world, or maybe even just the eyes of those we care about…but we're just on different sides. Who are you, anyway? You're a nobody. Take off that mask and put away your powers and you're just a nobody…that's who the world knows you of. You kill me now, and you sacrifice your title of HERO and gain the title ENEMY. You don't want that…I killed a man this evening. Do you know why? He was standing in the way of my objective, and I knew I was powerful and important enough and that who I am matters to the world…that I killed him for getting in my way. You're in a similar position here Nightblaze, you have an objective, to save Crimson City, and I'm in your way…the difference is, you won't kill me because behind that mask, whoever you are, is unimportant. You don't matter. You don't have it in you to sacrifice the title "HERO" to do what needs to be done. Don't worry your tights wearing friend doesn't seem to have what it takes either…."

As Derek kept speaking, Nightblaze nudged Aquaman and whispered as softly and discretely as he could. "Here in a second, you need to push me over to the left, got it?"

"My goodness," Nightblaze interrupted Derek, "do you ever shut up? My goodness you love to hear yourself talk, don't you? You want to talk about the me behind this mask? Well the real me thinks that you're just a lonely, self absorbed, sick man who has a very destructive appetite for respect and longs to be needed…you're also smart enough to realize that past your big company, family money, and long charismatic speeches, you're such a loudmouth wretched snob and you have nothing significant to offer this world. The way I see it, you're going to release that plague anyway so I won't be long for this world, I may as well take you out with me that way I've done everyone one last service."

Nightblaze extended his arms and Derek's face went from calm and confident to very fearful. Aquaman quickly turned to Nightblaze and yelled out, "No don't do it!" With that comment, Aquaman pushed him over, and quickly realized that this was exactly what the superhero wanted him to do.

Derek quickly pressed the "release" button on the plague canister and dropped it. During that exact same second, as he was falling to the ground, Nightblaze heated his body up as hot as he could and sent all the energy to his arms. The fire within him felt very different this time, and much more powerful. Out of Nightblaze's arms came a surge of fire that was so hot it was released blue as if it was a blaze of warm lightning. The magnificent inferno was aimed not at Derek but at where he dropped the canister. The flame hit the canister hard and surrounded it. At first the metal simply turned red and was unharmed. Within seconds though, the metal melted from the heat that rivaled that of the Sun. Instantaneously, the gas was also distinguished.

The impact of the fire wave onto the metal container was so power it created a seismic wave that knocked Derek Widener off his feet and into the ocean. As Derek fell into the water, the right side of his face hit the melting canister. The pain he felt from the fire and the distinguishing poisonous gas was unlike anything he had ever felt before. The man screamed out in agony as he felt as if his skin was peeling off his flesh. As soon as the short burst of intense fire disappeared, Aquaman rushed into the water, retrieved Derek Widener, and brought him back onto the land. Nightblaze and Aquaman looked in horror at the criminal. His body convulsed in pain and half of the billionaire's face was covered with blue embers and still burning, despite the fact that he had fallen into water.

"How tragic." Aquaman said as he checked Derek's pulse. "The man developed a plague to set loose on the entire world and in the end he was the only one that experiences it's terror. Widener must have fallen into the canister the second it was burning, so he was exposed slightly to it's toxins. Luckily, I "borrowed" some of his antidote in that research factory when I was looking for him. I'm going to take this man to the nearest hospital and leave the antidote next to his bed and surely any of the doctors will know what to do with him."

"I wish we could take him to the nearest prison and throw him there…" Nightblaze spoke as Aquaman picked up the now unconscious Derek Widener and threw him over his shoulders. "But he's got to many friends in high places…just watch, tomorrow this whole evening's terrors will be thrown under the press's rug and Derek will appear completely innocent. He was right to an extent…If we use this facility as proof that we found Derek's poison to incriminate him, everyone would start asking questions about who we are…and I guess we'd lose the title of "HERO" along with the ambiguity that allows us to do what we do."

"That's one of the prices you pay for being a hero." Aquaman replied calmly as he looked back at his new friend. "Take pride in the fact that Derek DIDN'T release this poison to the world today, because of our good work. Now, tomorrow the world may know a different story, but if that means that we can survive for another day to do the exact same thing that we did tonight…well, then that's a price I'm willing to pay, how about you?"

"I am…for now." Nightblaze replied as he walked the other way, ready to be done with his exceptionally long night. "Crimson City has lived to see another day…That's definitely victory enough for me!"


	7. Epilogue

**EPILOGUE**

**THE AFTERMATH**

About a week after the heroes prevented the Purification Initiative, Aquaman agreed to meet Nightblaze on top of the tallest building in Crimson City. It was a beautiful and peaceful night that reminded Nightblaze of that night in Wellington not too long ago when he went to the Wideners Mansion to be recognized as a hero for preventing a fire. This evening however, there was no dinner party to recognize their feats. There was only two superheroes saying goodbye to each other, and that was more than enough for either of the men.

"Thanks again for all of your help with this crisis." Aquaman said as he shook Nightblaze's hand. "I could not have rounded up all the containers of Adulium filled with Widener's toxic gas without you and your friend, Eric's help. And of course, I could have never prevented Widener from releasing the gas into Crimson Bay like you did…with your surprisingly powerful display of fireworks."

"Yes…" Nightblaze recalled that evening, "That was pretty scary, and a very close call. Don't worry though, since that little explosion my powers have returned to normal…They were just temporarily overcharged from my near death and then rejuvenation experience that happened at the hands of Alloy. I've tried since then; there are no blue flames, only red ones!"

"Maybe it's better that way." Aquaman replied as he looked out at the magnificent city's view. "To much power for a young hero like yourself can go to your head…I've seen a lot of good ones turn bad just because they were to powerful."

"So you're acknowledging me as a hero then?" Nightblaze smiled at the idea of this great man considering him an equal.

"You're reckless…" Aquaman's tone was very stern now. "and still a little selfish with how you handle yourself. One can't deny you're impulsive nature...Melting and electrocuting a villain, and shooting a surge of unstable heat energy at another certainly would appear to most as unorthodox strategies for a superhero…But your heart is clearly in the right place, and I would have to say I misjudged you at first Nightblaze. It would be my honor to protect the world along side of you any day of the week!"

"That means a lot coming from you." Nightblaze responded, as Aquaman put his hand on the hero's shoulder. "Even though you have to wear the dumbest looking costume I have ever seen, and I still think you're crazy if you think you can talk to fish…in the time we've worked together I've really grown to respect you, old man! Speaking of your awesomeness…you never did tell me, how did you find Widener and Glamnock's hideout? Me and Eric went through all kinds angles to get to that point, and you got there before us! I was pretty impressed."

"I have some pretty amazing friends too." Aquaman responded, "We have a little team…and one of my friends in his spare time hangs out with bats in a cave with lots of really nice computers. I called him up, and he did a little scan of the computers in Crimson City and was able to get quite some information about your friend Eric. Upon my friend's advice and technological support, I was able to borrow all of the information you gathered. I quite literally left for the Widener Research Center the moment you did!"

"Now that's cool!" Nightblaze found himself very impressed.

"It is…and we're always looking for new additions to our team, if you ever want to check us out." Aquaman responded, "We serve justice on a much bigger scale…not just for one city, but for the entire world. But a lot of my friends got their start just like you, serving in one city."

"Thanks for the offer," Nightblaze replied as he heard the footsteps of his next roof guest, "but I have plenty in this city that I want to protect for now. If you guys ever need any help though, hit me up…I'd love to team up with some professional superheroes!"

"I most certainly will!" Aquaman spoke as he climbed down the fire escape, realizing that another acquaintance of Nightblaze was arriving. "Until we meet again, Nightblaze!"

Just as Aquaman left, Amanda Cho-Ming came through the door of the top story of the building. She wore a large winter coat and shivered as she approached Nightblaze. Nightblaze pressed a button on his watch to remove his organic mask, as Amanda greeted him.

"You seriously don't know how lucky you have it, with the whole super warm body temperature thing." Amanda said as she hugged Zach. "It's always absolutely freezing up here, especially during this time of year!"

"Yeah," Zach said as he shrugged, "you used to say that back in college…this was our spot, remember?"

"Of course!" Amanda reminisced with a smile. "I thought it was so romantic that you were always able to sneak us up here…of course I know now that you melted a few doors shut to block security, and you had Eric bypass some security codes to get us up here…but it was still cute none the less."

The two sat quietly on the top of the building. Zach knew why he had asked Amanda to come up to this roof, but he hadn't yet built the nerve to bring up the topic he wanted to with her. He knew the conversation may go as he hoped, or it could go as it had in the past, which wasn't in a very positive direction at all. Zach also hesitated to speak because he was really enjoying this moment with his arm around Amanda. Despite all he had gone through in the previous week with Aquaman to insure the safety of Crimson City and the world, in this moment with Amanda, everything in Zach's life seemed perfect.

Not far from the building that Zach and Amanda were located at was the local TV broadcasting building. It was also a very large build that had the world's largest TV that made up one of the building's walls. As they sat on their roof, Zach and Amanda watched the local NEWS.

"_Many of you have heard by now about the events that transpired last week. A crime lord who had been thought to be out of the business and away from Crimson City's society, Victor Glamnock, infiltrated Widener Corporation and sabotaged the company's Water Purification technology, destroying everything that was going to be used for the Purification Initiative. This was a tragic disaster for the world, as Widener Corp.'s Water Purification Project promised to create a mass desalination process that would almost instantaneously clean all the planet's water. More crimes such as these are not projected to occur any time soon as Victor Glamnock was found near an old and never used Widener research facility gunned down._

_Associated to these crimes there has been rumors of two vigilantes, Aquaman and another man known to some of Crimson City's latest prison inmates, as Nightblaze were somehow involved. Aquaman's track record speaks for itself, and any question as to intent for him has been dropped by law enforcement officials. Nightblaze however still remains to be a mystery. A Widener tech employee posed the question "If this Nightblaze knew of the promise that the Purification Initiative proposed for the world, why would he possibly want to destroy it?" Experts have speculated that the reason Aquaman appeared in Crimson City was to stop Nightblaze…sadly, it appears that he failed._

_In related news, Derek Widener, the owner of Widener Corp, has been hospitalized for over a week now in a strange coma. By orders of his caretakers, reporters and newscasters have not been allowed to enter his hospital room to get more information on the billionaire but his closest employees have made the quote, "Mr. Widener tried to take matters in his own hands when he realized the Glamnock aimed to destroy the Purification Initiative and was severely injured in the process. The doctors tell us that Mr. Widener will make a full recovery all though they are unsure about the time frame. We assure you, that Derek Widener will resurface soon with a brilliant plan to reconcile this horrendous act."_

"Can you believe all that crap?" Amanda spoke to Zach as they sat. "And THAT company pays the people that pays for my paycheck…I know, sometimes I feel like I'm working for Satan himself!"

"Yeah most of that is just a bunch of bologna." Zach said, as he swept away the bad media coverage of Nightblaze. He reminded himself of Aquaman's words: that heroes aren't in it for the glory, but the results. "But something tells me Crimson City still has more to worry about with Derek Widener. Physically, I don't think he'll be able to do much…he looked pretty messed up when Aquaman pulled him out of Crimson Bay. But he's still got a wicked mind, lots of money, and tons of people that idolize him…even more now!"

"I tried everything I could to incriminate that sleeseball." Amanda glared at the TV which showed a picture of Derek as the NEWS program went on, "He's just paid enough of the right people so that it looks like he's 100% gold…it's ridiculous! But Derek's probably not too worried about Amanda Cho-Ming, agent of the media overlord, Satan…no Derek's probably scared out of his boots of Nightblaze, the world's number one rising superhero. You may have heard of him, they say he spends most of his time in Crimson City."

Zach smiled as Amanda's wit was in full swing. She never talked about how awesome "Zach" was, it was always how awesome "Nightblaze" was. Zach figured she did this as to try not to build up the superhero's head too much. Amanda continued. "You know, my boss wants our paper to be the first to get inclusive on the site information of this vigilante Nightblaze. Most people at the Crusade are thinking he's some crazy new terrorist, but I was the first to sign up for the "Nightblaze Project." I told them that I had a different theory…I told them that the way I see it, Nightblaze is trying to make the place better in ways that normal law enforcement isn't able to. I even tossed the term "superhero" around every now and again, but nobody's really caught on to it yet."

"I don't really care what all those people think of me; as long as I know you know who I really am, and what I'm about." Zach said as he looked deep in Amanda's eyes, this was that moment that he needed to tell her what he needed to tell her. "There was a moment, when we were on my motorcycle escaping the Widener facility last week…I thought what we used to have between us, was there again. I was wondering, if you felt it too?"

"How can you even ask that?" Amanda gave Zach the most puzzled and annoyed look ever. "That night? Oh do you mean the night where I almost died about three times at the hands of some of the scariest people I ever met? And you thought I was FLIRTING with you? Oh goodness, get over yourself Zach!"

"That's not really what I meant to say…It was more like…"

"It's like this…" Amanda said as she stood up and prepared to leave, "We want different things in life. To be honest, I don't even think you know what you want in life Zach. You see, part of you wants this normal life with a loyal girlfriend, and a regular job, and you know…what normal people have. But then there's the other part of you that realizes that you're NOT normal, and that part wants to be the superhero that keeps the world safe. But here's the thing about me Zach, as much as I loved you and loved who you are with and without the mask, I can't be the normal girl in the boy's normal life that wakes up one day to realize that her not so normal love was killed in his attempt to save the world. Call me selfish, but I don't want to share the person I care most about with the rest of the world…Any woman who's in a relationship with you is going to have to do that, and that's not me. I don't do life threatening danger Zach, and because of Nightblaze…you kind of attract it! I'm sorry, I can offer you friendship, and I can offer you the best article on Nightblaze's Introducing himself to Crimson City that you've ever read…when you're ready…but if you're looking for more, well, I can't offer you anything else."

Amanda slowly began to walk off, not wanting to give Zach an opportunity to respond. Zach knew she did this because it hurt her to say the harsh truths she has to say, even though she'd put a tough face on, and typically he wouldn't throw in a comment to make things harder for Amanda, but this time he couldn't contain himself.

"I always felt normal…" Zach said as he stood up, turned around and stopped Amanda from moving with his hand. "Because I thought you thought I was normal. That was enough for me, but knowing that this isn't how you feel…well that really hurts."

"I'm sorry Zach." Amanda said as she continued to walk away, fighting tears.

As Zach watched the girl of his dreams walk down the stairs and leave the rooftop, he pressed the button on his earpiece and spoke. "Eric did you get all of that?"

"Yep, I heard the whole thing."

"And what do you think?" Nightblaze asked as he put his mask back on.

"Remind me again who was it that got Amanda stuck into the life threatening danger at Widener's research facility? Was that your fault?" Eric asked.

"No, she fell into that on your own." Zach responded, pondering this thought.

"Yep, I thought so." Eric said, his voice expressing his somewhat know-it-all confidence. "The girl thinks that YOU attract danger, but she does a fair share of that herself…I think once she's okay with that aspect of who she is, she'll realize that you are the best thing that ever happened to her…Don't lose hope yet, Nightblaze!"

"Speaking of which…I need to get back to work!" Zach replied as he heated up his body and his hair went from blonde to red.

"Good! My computer picked up a particularly disturbing burglar downtown. He seems to have some unique gifts, like yourself. The cops haven't been able to catch him, do you care to try your luck?"

"Why of course." Nightblaze responded as he cracked his knuckles, "The night is still young."

"Oh yeah, one more thing." Eric replied, "Since you destroyed my last vehicle for you I had to push up the release date of my newest Nightblaze toy. It's another means of travel for you, and I think you'll really like it."

"Oh, do I smell an XLR8 II?" Nightblaze asked, getting very excited.

"Please!" Eric responded, "We don't have that kind of money to get another one of those…yet. I call this one, the Blaze Board."

Nightblaze heard a very strong but small engine flying up from the side of the building and looked in delight as a floating red and black skateboard landed in front of him. With the heart of a superhero, Nightblaze hopped on the board and soared off into another adventure.

* * *

**Of course I had to do a little tease for a potential sequel, all great stories do! A gentle reminder that I don't own DC Comics (Aquaman) but Nightblaze is an OC as are all the other main characters of this novel: Eric, Amanda, Derek, Alloy, Victor, and anyone else I'm forgetting...**

**Thank you SO MUCH for reading, I hope you have enjoyed this story as much as i enjoyed writing it!**


End file.
